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THE    STORY    OF    THE    STATES 

EDITED   liY 

ELBRIDGE   S    BROOKS 


THE    SrORV   OF  THE   STATES 


THE  STORY  OF  WISCONSIN 


BY 

REUBEN    (iOLD    THWAITES 


Ilbistrations  by  L  J  Bridgtnaii 


BOSTON 

D    LOTHROP    COMPANY 

WASHINGTON    OPPOSITE    BROMFIIiLD    STKEET 


CorvRicHT,  1890, 

liY 
D.   LOTHROP    COMTANY. 


PBESHWOIIK   1!Y   Hkiiwkk   it  Hmitii. 
UOSTON,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE. 


Wisconsin  is  situated  at  the  head  of  the  chain  of  Great 
Lakes.  It  is  touched  on  the  east  by  Lake  Michigan,  on  the 
north  by  Lake  Superior,  on  the  west  by  the  Mississippi,  and  is 
drained  by  interlacing  rivers  which  so  closely  approach  each 
other  that  the  canoe  voyager  can  with  ease  pass  from  one  great 
water  system  to  the  other  ;  he  can  enter  the  continent  at  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  by  means  of  numerous  narrow  port- 
ages in  Wisconsin  emerge  into  the  south-flowing  Mississippi 
and  eventually  return  to  the  Atlantic  through  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  From  Lake  Michigan,  the  Fox-Wisconsin  river  system 
was  the  most  popular  highway  to  the  great  river;  into  Lake 
Superior,  there  flow  numerous  streams  from  whose  sources  led 
short  portage  trails  over  to  the  headwaters  of  feeders  of  the 
Mississippi.  In  their  early  voyages  to  the  head  of  lake  navi- 
gation, it  was  in  the  course  of  nature  that  the  French  should 
discover  Wisconsin  ;  and  having  discovered  it,  soon  learn  that 
it  was  the  key-point  of  the  Northwest  and  the  gateway  to  the 
mysterious  "  River  of  the  Southern  Sea.'" 

Thus  the  geographical  character  of  Wisconsin  became,  very 
early  in  the  history  of  New  France,  an  important  factor.  The 
trading  posts  and  Jesuit  missions  on  Chequamegon  Bay  of 
Lake  Superior,  and  on  Green  Bay  of  Lake  Michigan,  soon 
played  a  prominent  part  in  the  history  of  American  explora- 
tion. Two  and  a  half  centuries  ago.  when  the  Puritan 
colonies  on  Massachusetts  Bay  were  yet  in  their  infancy,  and 
long  before  much  of  the  intervening  country  had  been  visited 


PREFACE. 

by  white  men,  the  general  features  of  the  map  of  Wisconsin 
and  the  route  thither  were  familiar  to  the  rulers  of  Quebec, 

Wisconsin  was  notable,  too,  in  those  early  clays,  as  a  hiding 
place  for  tribes  of  Algonkins  who  had  been  driven  beyond 
Lake  Michigan  before  the  resistless  onslaught  of  the  Iroquois, 
who,  however,  often  ventured  into  these  forest  fastnesses  and 
massacred  the  crouching  fugitives.  The  country  was,  for  a 
century  and  a  half,  a  happy  hunting-ground  for  the  easy-going 
French  —  licensed  traders  and  r^«r^//rj- rt'^ /W^-  as  well.  In  the 
French-and-Indian  war  it  was  a  favorite  recruiting  field  for 
those  disciplined  bands  of  redskins  who  periodically  broke  forth 
upon  the  borders,  filling  the  life  of  American  pioneers  with 
scenes  of  horror.  And  it  was  a  Wisconsin  leader  of  these 
savage  allies  of  the  French,  who  caught  Braddock  in  his 
slaughter  pen  and  whose  swarthv  fellows  bore  away  to  their 
rude  lodges  in  the  trans-Michigan  woods  a  goodly  share  of  the 
scalps  and  spoils  won  by  them  on  that  fateful  day. 

When  New  France  fell,  Wisconsin — now  a  part  of  the 
Province  of  Quebec  —  remained  essentially  French.  The  flag 
of  England  waved  over  the  rude  stockade  at  Green  Bay,  but  the 
woods  were  filled  with  French  and  Indians  in  all  grades  of 
blood  relationship,  who  had  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the 
conqueror.  French  and  half-bloods,  throughout  the  War  of 
the  Revfjlulion,  wore  the  starlet  uniforms  of  officers  in  His 
Majesty's  army.  Wisconsin  was  again  a  recruiting  ground,  and 
the  self-same  savages  who  ambushed  Braddock  were  sent  out 
against  the  colonial  borderers  or  against  George  Rogers  Clark 
in  ills  cx|)edition  for  the  coiujut'sl  of  the  Northwest. 

Although  the  Nortiiwest  was  given  to  the  United  States  in 
the  treaty  of  1783,  tlu-  Fnglish  were  jiractically  in  military 
possession  of  Wisconsin  nnlil  llic  close  of  llu'  war  of  1S12-15. 
I'.iil  lh(;  ['"rench  .iml  liiilf-hlDnds  slill  hi-ld  her  woods  and 
streanis,  and    llic    lur-hadc    was    llir   <  liicf    in(luslr\-.      Little   by 


PREFACE. 

little,  this  French  predominance  was  undermined  ;  at  first  by 
the  advent  of  Americans  into  the  lead  mines,  then  by  afjjricult- 
ural  settlers.  The  Black  Hawk  War  was  largely  instrumental 
in  opening  the  region  to  public  view.  American  colonization, 
and  development  along  American  lines,  now  began  in  earnest. 
The  fur-trade  ceased  to  be  of  importance,  the  non-progressive 
French  element  subsided  into  insignificance,  and  thenceforth 
Wisconsin  was  an  American  territory  which  rapidly  grew  into 
a  powerful  and  patriotic  State. 

The  story  of  the  long  and  checkered  career  of  Wisconsin,  is 
replete  with  suggestive  and  romantic  incidents.  Necessarily, 
a  treatment  of  the  topic  from  a  picturesque  standpoint  must 
chiefiy  dwell  upon  the  romantic  pioneer  period.  A  Western 
State,  after  reaching  maturity,  progresses  upon  pretty  much  the 
same  lines  as  kindred  commonwealths,  and  no  longer  furnishes 
a  unique  story.  This  will  account  for  the  fact  that  the  for- 
mative epochs  receive  by  far  the  most  generous  recognition  in 
this  volume. 

I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Frederick  J.  Turner,  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin,  for  assistance  in  the  revision  of  proof-sheets, 
and  for  many  helpful  suggestions.  To  General  David  Atwood, 
Major  Frederick  L.  Phillips,  Professor  Albert  O.  Wright,  Gen- 
eral Edwin  E.  Bryant,  Doctor  Lyman  C.  Draper  and  Professor 
Jesse  B.  Thayer,  my  thankful  acknowledgments  are  also  due,  for 
valuable  aid.  Mr.  James  S.  Buck  has  been  so  kind  as  to  give 
me  the  privilege  to  freely  appropriate  any  of  the  wood-cuts  in 
his  excellent  Pioneer  FT i story  of  Mihcaiikee,  and  one  or  two  of 
these  the  artist  has  taken  the  liberty  to  use  as  a  basis  for  his 
own  sketches. 


(c^  ,  AwA^-t--^ 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

IN    THE    BEGINNING  ....«,„  II 

CHAPTER    IE 

DISCOVERY    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI  .....  36 

1658-1673. 

CHAPTER    HE 

EXPLORERS    AND    FUR-TRADERS    OF    NEW    FRANCE     .  .  61 

1674-1760. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

UNDER    THE    BRITISH    FLAG        ......  89 

1761-1783. 

CHAPTER    V. 

ENGLISH    DOMINATION    CONTINUED.  .  .  .  ,  IIQ 

1783-1815. 

CHAPTER    VI. 

WISCONSIN    BECOMES    AMERICANIZED  ....  I49 

1815-1836. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

TERRITORIAL    DAYS  .......  193 

1836-1855. 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER   VIII. 

"  BARSTOW    AND    THE    BALANCE  "..,„„  23O 

1S44-1S56. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

SPOTS    ON    THE    ESCUTCHEON    . 

1854-1856. 


CHAPTER   XI. 


DEEDS    OF    VALOR 


1860-1866. 

CHAPTER    XII. 


SINCE    THE    WAR 


INDEX 


247 


CHAPTER   X. 

WISCONSIN    ON    A    WAR    FOOTING        .  .  .  .  o  270 

1860-1865. 


291 


330 


THE    CUKONOLOOICAL    SIORY    ......  369 

THE    i'Eoi'LK's    COVENANT  ......  379 

I'.ooKs  relajinm;    lu  Wisconsin      .....         383 


387 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Coming  to  a  session  of  the  Territorial  Legislature 

A  Winnebago  chief.     Initial 

Nicolet  and  the  Winnebagoes    . 

Robert  de  la  Salle.     Initial 

In  the  Wisconsin  forest 

A  Wisconsin  home  in  the  old  days    . 

Relics  of  Jesuit  and  voyageur.      Initial 

The  Griffin  ..... 

Milwaukee  in  1795.     Initial 

The  perils  of  the  frontier    . 

Solomon  Juneau.     Initial 

In  the  British  camp    .... 

The  old  Legislative  IJuilding  at  Belmont 

Black  Hawk.     Initial 

Indians  attacking  a  stockade 

Governors  Dodge  and  Doty.     Initial 

"  King  Strang  "  and  his  saints    . 

Governors  Bashford  and  Barstow.     Initial 

By  lake  and  river        .... 

The  State  Capitol       .... 

Governor  Dewey.      Initial 

Some  Wisconsin  scenery    . 

Governor  Randall.     Initial 

Answering  the  President's  call  . 

Stanley  and  Oskhosh.     Initial  . 

Charging  the  Battery 

On  the  line  of  battle  .... 

In  La  Crosse.     Initial 

Picturesque  Milwaukee 


Frontispiece. 


II 
21 

42 

53 
61 

73 
89 
103 
119 
127 
141 
149 
i6s 

193 
209 
231 

-43 

247 

-57 
270 
279 
291 
=95 
309 
330 
*345 


THE  STORY  OF  WISCONSIN 


CHAPTER    I. 


IN    THE    BEGINNING. 


A 


A  Wi^con^in 
W  inneDago. 


5^ 


LAURENTIAN  is- 
land, almost  alone 
amidst  a  world  of 
waters,  such  if  scien- 
tists read  her  rocks 
ariorht,  was  the  bes:in- 
ning  of  the  State  of 
Wisconsin.  Geolo- 
gists say  that  a  con- 
siderable portion  of 
the  area  of  the  State  (the  whole  northern  third) 
had  doubtless  risen  from  the  ancient  ocean  before 
much  else  of  the  American  continent,  and  while 
most  of  Europe  was  still  submerged.  Thus  its 
story  reaches  back  to  almost  the  days  of  "  Chaos  and 
old  Night."  Lofty  mountains  occupied  the  pres- 
ent plains  of  Central  Wisconsin  —  peaks  which 
pierced  the  clouds  and  rivaled    the    Himalayas  of 


12  IN   THE   BEGINNING. 

our  day.  But  the  waves  of  the  ahnost  shoreless 
ocean  beat  against  their  bases,  the  elements  disin- 
tegrated their  peaks,  and  rivers  furrowed  their 
slopes,  these  leveling  processes  being  interrupted 
by  intermittent  periods  of  submergence  ;  until  at 
last,  after  a  series  of  such  remarkable  movements, 
lastino-  throuQ-h  ao-es  of  unknown  and  unknowable 
lencrth,  and  after  the  entire  continent  had  emero-ed 
and  taken  form,  the  irresistible  glacier  came  upon 
Wisconsin  from  the  north,  "  planing  down  the 
prominences,  filling  up  the  valleys,  polishing  and 
grooving  the  strata,  and  heaping  up  its  rubbish  of 
sand,  gravel,  clay  and  bowlders  over  the  face  of  the 
country." 

One  monster  tongue  of  ice  pushed  through  the 
valleys  of  the  Fox  and  Rock  rivers,  another  plowed 
the  bed  of  Lake  Michigan,  while  two  others  separa- 
ted by  Keweenaw  Point  moved  southward  and  west- 
ward through  the  trough  of  Lake  Superior  into 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  The  territory  em- 
braced in  Southwestern  Wisconsin  was  alone  left 
intact.  This  was  the  unique  "  driftless  area,"  the 
wonder  of  American  geologists. 

'i1ic  thousands  of  depressions  scooped  out  by 
the  mighty  floes,  when  lliey  rudely  tore  their  way 
througli  the  l.md,  wvxv  filled  with  water  upon  the 
melting  of  the  ice,  llius  giving  rise  to  the  beautiful 
Wii^consin  lakes,  isolated  and  in   chains,  with    their 


IN   THE   BEGINNING.  13 

picturesque  river  outlets.  "  With  the  retreat  of 
the  glacier,  vegetation  covered  the  surface,  and  by 
its  aid  and  the  action  of  the  elements  our  fertile 
drift  soils,  among  the  last  and  best  of  Wisconsin's 
formations,  were  produced  ;  and  the  work  still  goes 
on."  * 

Man  then  came  upon  the  scene.  How  long 
after,  no  one  knows,  but  his  coming  opens  the  next 
chapter  in  Wisconsin's  progress.  Its  details  are 
lost  in  mystery,  although  scientific  investigation 
and  ingenious  conjecture  have  of  late  framed  for 
us  a  reasonable  hypothesis. 

Upon  the  level  benches  of  noble  streams,  upon 
ridge  tops,  upon  the  summits  of  commanding  bluffs, 
upon  the  sloping  banks  of  both  inland  and  Great 
Lakes,  there  are  in  Wisconsin  many  thousands  of 
artificial  earthworks  that  have  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  whites  since  the  time  of  the  European  con- 
quest. Some  are  mere  hemispherical  tumuli ; 
others  are  grotesque  in  shape,  and  it  does  not  re- 
quire a  great  stretch  of  imagination  to  discover 
amonor  them  the  rude  outlines  of  birds,  beasts,  fishes 
and  reptiles,  the  predominating  forms  being  appar- 
ently those  of  the  turtle,  the  lizard,  the  snake,  the  bird, 
the  squirrel,  the  deer  and   the  buffalo,!  while  not  a 

*  President  T.  C.  Chamberliii,  in  Snyder,  Van  Vechten  &  Co.'s  "  Historical  Atlas  of 
Wisconsin  "  (Milwaukee,  187S),  p.  151. 

t  The  so-called  "  elephant "  mound,  in  Grant  County,  over  which  there  has  been  so  much 
speculation,  is  very  likely  but  a  distorted  buffalo,  the  prolongation  of  the  nose  probably  being 
occasioned  by  a  land-slide. 


14  IN   THE  BEGINNING. 

few  maybe  likened  to  men  and  even  to  implements 
of  war,  such  as  the  club  and  the  spear.  Again, 
there  are  parallel  lines,  with  circles  and  corners,  and 
within  such  earthworks  as  these  are  often  isolated 
mounds  of  considerable  height.  The  best  example 
of  this  latter  class  of  structure  is  the  field  of  Azta- 
Ian  near  the  village  of  Lake  Mills,  in  Jefferson 
County,  where  are  to  be  found  prehistoric  ruins  of 
a  character  quite  similar  to  the  famous  works  at 
Marietta,  Ohio,  presumably  familiar  to  our  readers. 
The  effigy  mounds  of  Wisconsin  are,  however, 
unique. 

There  has  been  a  vast  amount  of  literature  pub- 
lished concerning  the  mounds  of  the  United  States, 
and  those  in  Wisconsin  have  received  particular 
attention.  Much  of  what  has  appeared,  however, 
has  been  the  product  of  lively  and  romantic  imag- 
ination. It  has  been  sturdily  maintained  that 
because  the  Indians  whom  the  whites  first  met 
generally  claimed  to  be  ignorant  of  the  origin  of 
these  earthworks;  because  the  Indians  of  our  day 
do  not  build  mounds  ;  and  because  nothing  in  the 
customs  or  beliefs  of  modern  Indians  aj^pears  upon 
superficial  examinatioii  to  l)e  connected  with  the 
j)racti(e  of  mound  building,  that  the  prehistoric 
mounds  were  built   by  anothei"  and  a  singular  race 

of     lUfU. 

It  has  been  held  lha(  the  builders  of  the  mounds, 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  15 

coming  from  the  mysterious  north,  commenced 
their  most  active  labors  in  the  Upper  Mississippi 
valley  and  were  gradually  driven  southward  and 
eastward  before  the  inroads  of  our  modern  Indians, 
until  at  last  this  mystic  people  made  stand  in 
Mexico,  the  progenitors  of  the  Aztecs  whom 
Cortez  conquered,  and  the  Pueblos  who  have  sur- 
vived to  our  own  time. 

This  theory  has  been  so  persistently  advanced 
for  the  past  half-century,  that  doubtless  the 
greater  part  of  the  reading  public  have  at  last  come 
to  accept  it  as  an  established  historical  fact.  As  to 
the  purposes  for  which  the  mounds  were  built,  spec- 
ulation has  been  rife,  each  set  of  theorists  adopt- 
ing" in  their  writings  a  descriptive  terminology  to 
agree  with  their  peculiar  notions,  thereby  giving 
rise  to  much  confusion. 

Some  would  have  us  believe  that  the  mounds 
were  totems  of  the  several  clans — a  sort  of  native 
heraldry ;  others  imagine  the  mounds  to  have  been 
built  almost  solely  for  purposes  of  worship,  others 
for  defense,  others  as  symbols  of  mystic  rites  in 
which  human  sacrifice  and  sun  worship  played 
prominent  parts,  others  as  cemeteries  and  sites 
for  dwellings. 

It  has  remained,  however,  for  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Fthnology  to  dispel  much  of  the  fog  of 
romance  which  has  heretofore  enveloped  the  long- 


1 6  IN  THE   BEGINNING. 

mooted  question  of  "  Who  were  the  Mound-build- 
ers ?  "  For  several  years  past,  competent  special- 
ists have  been  engaged  in  the  work  of  mound 
exploration  upon  a  scientific  basis,  in  various  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  It  has  been  discovered  that 
many  mounds,  heretofore  supposed  to  be  of  great 
antiquity,  contained  articles  of  European  manufac- 
ture at  their  base,  undoubtedly  placed  there  when 
the  mounds  were  erected. 

The  conclusion  has  been  reached  after  careful 
investio-ation,  that  there  was  nothino;  in  the  habits 
or  character  of  the  Mound-builders,  so  far  as  the 
excavations  show,  which  necessarily  divorce  them 
from  the  Indians  whom  the  whites  first  met.  That 
burial  and  dwelling-site  mounds  were  erected, 
notably  in  the  Southern  States,  after  the  advent  of 
Europeans,  is  well  established  by  the  journals  of 
many  of  the  earliest  travelers,  who  carefully  de- 
scribed these  works,  the  manner  of  building  them 
and  the  curious  customs  then  in  vogue  among  the 
savages  relative  to  burial  and  sun  worship.  Several 
early  explorers  have  stated  that  traditions  relative 
to  these  mounds  were  abundant  among  some  of  the 
tribes,  for  instance  the  Chcrokces,  the  Kaskaskias 
and  the  Creeks;  and  that  old  men  attributed 
the  erection  of   the  works   to  tlu-ii-  ancestors. 

It  is   not  a  uni(|iic  fad  in  human  history  that  the 
Indian   came   to   aljandoii    thcii"  ancient    custom    of 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  17 

mound  building.  The  people  of  Egypt  no  longer 
fashion  pyramids  and  sphinxes,  yet  the  descendants 
of  the  builders  of  these  mysterious  structures  still 
live  in  the  country;  the  people  of  England  no  longer 
build  abbeys,  yet  no  one  will  deny  that  the 
descendants  of  the  abbey  builders  still  live  within 
sight    of    the  olden    ruins. 

The  Indians  dropped  many  of  their  customs  and 
rites  with  the  advent  of  the  whites :  for  instance, 
the  maintenance  of  a  perpetual  fire  in  each  village, 
an  evidence  in  itself  of  sun  worship  ;  they  came  no 
longer  to  manufacture  wampum  and  implements  and 
utensils  of  copper,  flint  and  clay  ;  in  the  matter  of 
clothing,  it  was  not  long  before  European  articles 
of  dress  became  common  among  them ;  while  their 
habits  of  daily  life  were  at  last  so  altered  by  contact 
with  the  whites  that  they  ceased  to  be  self-reliant  and 
were  absolutely  dependent  on  the  invaders  of  their 
country  for  domestic  utensils,  weapons,  tools,  cloth- 
ina:  and  often  food.  It  is  indeed  remarkable  how 
soon  the  imitative  American  savage  abandoned 
many  of  the  long-established  customs  and  methods 
of  his  ancestors,  for  those  of  the  whites.  So 
complete  has  been  the  transformation,  that  to-day 
the  old  gossips  of  many  of  the  Western  tribes  assert 
with  earnestness  that  their  ancestors  iieither  made 
nor  used  flint  arrow-heads,  and  that  those  plowed 
up  in  the  fields  and  fondly  treasured   in  museums, 


1 8  IN  THE   BEGINNING. 

were  made  and  placed  in  the  ground  by  spirits  ; 
such  is  the  value  of  Indian  tradition,  such  the 
significance  of  the  lack  of  it. 

The  formal  conclusion  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnol- 
ogy is,  that  "  The  links  discovered  directly  con- 
necting the  Indians  and  Mound-builders  are  so 
numerous  and  well  established,  that  there  should  no 
longer  be  any  hesitancy  in  accepting  the  theory 
that  the  two  are  one  and  the  same  people."* 

The  Bureau  inclines  to  the  belief  that  Wisconsin 
was  occupied  by  two  or  three  different  mound- 
building  tribes  of  Indians,  the  effigies  and  the  groups 
being  probably  traceable  to  Dakotan  stock,  of 
which  the  Winnebagces  are  the  modern  representa- 
tives. There  are  reasons  for  believi'ig  that  the 
JNIoimd-ljuilders  came  into  the  State  from  the 
southwest,  through  Northern  Iowa,  and  moved 
frequently  back  and  forth  between  the  Mississippi 
Iviver  and  Lake  Michigan,  but  that  some  opposing 
element    ke})t    them    from    advancing    around    the 


•"Work  in  Moiiiul  I*,xplorntI(in,"  I'lircnu  of  Ktlinolopiy  Report,  1SS7,  p.  11.  See  also 
"The  Mounds  of  (lie  Mississippi  Valley  Historically  Considered"  (Kentucky  Geological 
Survey  Memoirs,  Vol.  II.),  by  I.ucien  Carr  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Archaeology  and 
KthnoloKy ;  "Who  liuilt  the  Mounds?"  by  P.  R.  Hoy  (Trans.  Wisconsin  .\cademy  of 
Sciences,  Art  and  Letters,  Vol.  VI.),  and  "  .\Mli(|uilies  of  Wisconsin  "  {Smithsonian  Contri- 
butions, 1S55),  by  I.  A.  I-apham. 

"That  the  Moinid-builders  were  Indians,  pertaining  to  or  ancestors  of  the  tribes  inhabi- 
tatiuR  this  country  when  discovered  Ijy  Europeans,  is  now  too  well  established  to  admit  of  a 
reanonablc  doubt.  Those  who  question  this  conclusion  arc  certainly  not  familiar  with  the 
evidence."  —  Cyrus  Thomas,  of  the  liureau  of  Ethnology,  in  Miigazinc  of  American  H  istory, 
Sept.,  i«88,  p.  193. 

Sec  also,  CIcrard  Fowkc,  on  "  Some  Popular  Errors  in  Kcnard  to  Mound-builders  and 
\w\\Zin^"  \n  Ohio  Arch(rolngicnl  mid  HistorUnl  Qiiiirli-rly,  I'ol.  11.  p.  j,  and  Winsor's  Mir- 
ralivc and  Critical  History  0/ America,  Vol.  I.  Index. 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  1 9 

south  end  of  the  lake.  The  most  ancient  works  in 
Wisconsin,  probably  originating  in  a  very  distant 
past,  appear  to  be  the  effigy  and  elongated  mounds, 
the  evidence  beiuQ-  that  their  builders  came  after- 
wards  to  abandon  these  forms  and  erect  only  burial 
tumuli.  Even  this  latter  species  they  had  pos- 
sibly abandoned  before  the  advent  of  the  whites, 
although  the  Illinois  Indians  who  entertained  Mar- 
quette practised  in  his  presence  the  rites  of  the 
ancient  sun  worship,  the  undoubted  religion  of  the 
Mound-builders. 

As  to  the  use  of  the  effigies  and  more  compli- 
cated forms,  antiquarians  still  disagree,  but  it  has 
been  quite  generally  concluded  that  the  other 
shapes  were  mostly  erected  as  sites  for  dwellings, 
council  houses  and  worship  huts,  also  for  purposes 
of  defense.  Fortified  villao^es  were  common  amontr 
the  Mound-builders,  as  among  their  descendants 
within  historic  times,  and  the  evidences  of  ancient 
palisaded  inclosures  in  Wisconsin  are  not  in- 
frequent. 

The  child  born  upon  the  Mayflower  was  but  in 
her  fourteenth  year  when  Wisconsin  entered  upon 
the  stage  of  history.  It  was  in  1634  that  Jean 
Nicolet,  agent  of  the  inquiring  and  politic  Cham- 
plain,  set  foot  upon  Wisconsin  soil,  the  first  white 
man   known    to   have   visited   the    Old    Northwest. 


20  IN  THE   BEGINNING. 

Champlain  had  planted  his  feeble  colony  of  French 
Catholics  upon  the  rock  of  Quebec,  twenty-six 
years  before,  but  progress  into  the  far  West  had 
been  necessarily  slow.  The  search  for  peltries  had 
led  adventurous  fur-traders  to  Georgian  Bay  and 
Lake  Huron;  Recollet  missionaries  were,  amidst 
a  thousand  lurking  dangers,  saying  masses  upon 
those  distant  shores  and  vainly  endeavoring  to 
bring  the  red  men  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
enormity  of  their  pagan  rites;*  while  Champlain 
himself  had,  in  1615,  ventured  upon  the  waters  of 
the  oreat  "  Fresh  Sea."  But  all  bevond  was,  to 
the  authorities  of  New  France,  an  unknown  land. 
It  is  possible  that  coiireurs  de  bois,  those  lawless 
Canadian  adventurers  who  became  Indians  in  habit 
and  prosecuted  the  fur  trade  far  beyond  all  licensed 
bounds,  had  by  this  time  pushed  their  way  into  the 
Lake  Superior  country;  but  if  so  they  discreetly 
kept  quiet  about  it  and  left  no  record  behind. 

It  had  been  reported  to  Champlain,  by  Western 
traders,  that  the  Indians  told  of  two  lakes  beyond 
that  of  Huron  :  of  a  large  body  of  fresh  water,  at 
the  outlet  of  which  was  a  sault,  or  rapids  —  after- 
wards ascertained  to  be  the  Lake  Superior  of  our 
modern  maps;  and  of  another  lake  that  was  smaller, 
styled  fjy  the  Indians  "  Winnepegou,"  —  the  Winne- 
bago  of  our  day, —  while   this    smaller  lake   had   a 

•  I'.rcbeiiCs  Jesuit  mission  w.is  iiol  l)cj;ini  iiiilJI    if>.vi. 


IN  THE  BEGINNING.  23 

river  outlet,  the  Fox  of  later  maps,  Cham})]ain  had 
long  wished  to  have  this  geographical  mystery  of 
the  Northwest  penetrated,  and  the  Indians  of  that 
far-away  region  instructed  in  the  benefits  of  religion 
and  the  fur-trade,  for  the  love  of  Mammon  had  no 
small  share  in  the  missionary  aspirations  of  the 
governors  of  New  France.  The  opportunity  at 
last  came,  and  Jean  Nicolet,  interpreter  at  Three 
Rivers,  was  commissioned  to  undertake  the  haz- 
ardous enterprise. 

Nicolet  was  a  native  of  Cherbourg,  in  Normandy, 
but  emigrated  to  Canada  in  16 18,  when  a  young 
man.  At  that  time,  Champlain,  filled  with  ambi- 
tious schemes  of  exploration,  was  in  the  practice  of 
occasionally  sending  young  men  to  live  among  dis- 
tant tribes  of  Indians  to  learn  their  languages  and 
customs  in  order  to  be  of  service  to  him  as  inter- 
preters and  explorers.  Nicolet  was  one  of  the  per- 
sons thus  selected,  and  soon  after  his  arrival  at 
Quebec  was  dispatched  first  to  the  Algonkins  on 
the  Ottawa  River  and  next  to  the  Nipissings,  on  the 
lake  which  bears  their  name.  Upon  his  return  to 
the  colony,  after  many  years  of  intimate  associ- 
ation with  the  savages,  Nicolet  was  employed  as 
interpreter  at  Three  Rivers,  where  he  acquired  the 
reputation  of  being  adroit  in  his  management  of 
the  hordes  of  red  men  who  annually  assembled 
there  from  the  upper  country,  for  purposes  of  trade 


24  JN  THE   BEGINNING. 

and  council.  In  1634,  this  hardy  adventurer  was 
dispatched  by  the  governor  to  visit  the  tribes 
dwelling  upon  the  shores  of  the  Winnepegou  and 
other  fresh-water  seas  of  the  Northwest,  and 
endeavor  to  secure  their  good-will  and  their  atten- 
dance upon  the  councils  of  the  French  on  the 
lower  St.    Lawrence. 

Nicolet  proceeded  up  the  Ottawa  River  as  far  as 
the  Isle  des  Allumettes,  in  company  with  Fathers 
Brebeuf,  Daniel  and  Davost,  Jesuit  priests  who 
were  on  their  way  to  the  Huron  country  to  re- 
establish the  mission  commenced  but  afterwards 
abandoned  by  the  Recollets.  At  the  Isle,  he 
parted  company  with  his  priestly  comrades,  and 
proceeded  by  way  of  Lake  Nipissing  and  French 
Creek  to  Georgian  Bay.  He  appears  to  have  spent 
some  time  among  the  Hurons  there,  and  finally  to 
have  secured  seven  men  of  the  tribe  to  accompany 
him  upon  his  voyage  of  discovery  to  the  North- 
west. Nicolet  was  himself  a  demi-savage,  quite 
ec[ual  in  endurance  to  any  of  his  red  companions 
and  allowing  none  of  them  to  outdo  him  in  the 
weary  task  before  them.  In  their  long  canoe  of 
birch-bark,  jjropellcd  solely  by  paddles,  they  slowly 
skirted  the  northern  shores  of  Lake  Huron;  upon 
their  right  the  gloomy  j)ine  forest  swe}:)t  down  in 
solemn  grandeur  to  the  water's  edge  or  thickly 
mantled  the   towering  bluffs,  while  to  their  left  the 


IN  THE    BEGINNING.  25 

dark  green  waters  stretched  to  the  horizon  in  mys- 
tic subHmity.  Their  frail  bark  "was  often  tossed 
about  like  a  chip,  in  the  white-capped  swells  which 
swept  with  but  little  warning  around  the  awesome 
headlands.  There  were  times  when  storms  too 
severe  even  for  Indian  boatmen  compelled  them  to 
camp  upon  the  shore  in  the  shelter  of  the  woods, 
for  days  at  a  time,  until  the  wind  had  gone  down 
and  the  sea  was  again  quiet.  Thus,  through  storm 
and  calm,  they  pursued  their  spasmodic  voyage, 
picking  up  their  food  as  they  went  along,  from  the 
sea  and  the  forest,  veritable  children  of  nature 
alone  in  the  mighty  wilderness.  There  were  no 
doubt  times  when  the  Hurons,  unimpelled  by  the 
spirit  of  exploration  or  the  hope  of  gain,  wearied  of 
their  seemingly  useless  task,  but  Nicolet  was  fired 
by  the  zeal  of  his  mission  and  could  brook  no 
human  opposition  to  his  progress.  Finally,  the 
shore  lines  led  them  through  the  North  Channel  to 
the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior,  the  Strait  of  St.  Mary. 
A  considerable  distance  up  this  strait,  and  fifteen 
miles  below  the  foot  of  the  Great  Lake,  they 
encountered  the  falls,  where  —  on  the  site  of  the 
present  thriving  city  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  in  Upper 
Michio:an  —  there  was  a  considerable  villas^e  of  Al- 
gonkins.  Landing  here,  Nicolet,  first  of  all  recorded 
white  men,  set  foot  upon  the  soil  of  what  a  century 
and  a  half  later  became  the  Northwest  Territory. 


26  IN   THE   BEGINmNG. 

It  is  not  known  whether  Nicolet  ever  saw  Lake 
Superior,  which  was  within  a  few  liours'  walk  of  the 
Algonkin  village.  Probably  he  did  not,  as  so  notable 
a  discovery  would  have  been  placed  to  his  credit  by 
his  Jesuit  admirers.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  he 
remained  long  enough  at  the  falls  to  thoroughly 
refresh  his  men,  whereupon  the  party  again  ventured 
forth,  this  time  to  the  southward,  seeking  what  they 
might  find. 

The  voyage  now  became  more  fraught  with  inter- 
est to  a  lover  of  nature.  Islands  in  great  variety 
appeared  upon  either  hand — great  masses,  the 
size  of  a  German  principality,  densely  covered  with 
mighty  forests  of  dark-hued  pine  and  skirted  by 
broad,  glistening  beaches  of  sand  and  bowlders; 
pretty  islets,  a  few  square  miles  in  extent,  with  cool 
and  inviting  shades,  indented  with  restful  coves  and 
crowned  by  rocky  observatories  of  fantastic  form  ; 
low,  barren  patches  of  storm-swept  rock,  covered 
with  lichens  and  scrub  pine,  telling  tales  of  deadly 
strucr2:les  with  ice  and  wind  and  wave.  Throu2:h 
this  sylvan  arcliipelago,  Nicolet's  bark  tlireadcd  its 
way  as  rajjidly  as  eight  men  could  propel  it,  and  in 
due  time  entered  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw;  ascend- 
ing this  iiow  famous  highway,  the  waters  of  Lake 
Michigan  soon  burst  upon  the  sight  of  their  first 
white  discoverer. 

Closch'  skirtlmj-  \\v  northern  coast  of  this  inland 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  27 

sea,  and  frequently  camping  upon  the  edges  of  the 
deep  forest  which  framed  it,  either  to  await  the  pas- 
sage of  storms  or  refresh  the  weary  crew,  our  in- 
trepid explorer  finally  rounded  far-stretching  Point 
Detour  and  beached  his  craft  on  the  shores  of  Bay 
de  Noquet,  a  northern  arm  of  the  great  Green  Bay. 
Here  was  another  Algonkin  tribe,  with  whom  he 
smoked  the  pipe  of  peace,  obtaining  particulars 
from  them  of  the  country  beyond. 

His  next  stopping  place  was  the  mouth  of  the 
river  afterwards  called  Menomonee,  from  the  tribe 
of  Algonkins  then  inhabiting  its  valley ;  this 
rugged  stream,  now  one  of  the  boundary  lines 
betw^een  Wisconsin  and  Upper  Michigan,  is  the 
principal  northern  affluent  of  Green  Bay.  He  only 
tarried  here  long  enough  to  hold  a  brief  council 
with  the  Menomonees  and  dispatch  one  of  his 
Hurons  to  herald  his  approach  to  the  Winneba- 
goes  who  were  established  at  the  mouth  of  Fox 
River. 

Green  Bay  is  shaped  like  a  monster  letter  V ; 
it  opens  to  the  northeast,  and  the  Fox  River  flows 
into  it  from  the  south,  at  the  vertex  of  the  angle. 
The  western  shores  are  now,  as  they  were  in  Nico- 
let's  time,  low,  irregular  in  outline  and  densely 
wooded  with  pine  and  tamarack,  presenting  a  sin- 
gularly somber  and  depressing  appearance;  while 
the   eastern   banks   are  generally   high,  with  many 


28  IN  THE  BEGINNING. 

bold  headlands  and  abrupt  slopes,  well  covered  with 
both  hard  and  soft  woods. 

At  Red  Banks,  so  called  from  the  red  clay  sub- 
soil predominant  here,  the  height  of  the  shore  is 
about  seventy-five  feet  sheer,  the  summit  of  this 
picturesque  cliff  of  clay  being  crowned  for  some 
miles  back  into  the  country  with  interesting  mounds. 
The  Winnebagoes  have  a  tradition  that  the  Adam 
and  Eve  of  their  race  first  lived  at  Red  Banks  ;  also 
that  the  French  first  visited  the  tribe  at  this  place. 
The  last  half  of  the  tradition  we  know  to  be 
baseless. 

The  bay  is  a  wild  and  stormy  estuary,  much 
troubled  by  cross  winds  and  cross  tides,*  and  a 
dangerous  passage  for  small  craft ;  but  Nicolet, 
seizing  the  opportunity  of  favorable  weather,  pur- 
sued his  venturesome  way  and  soon  came  within 
siorht  of  the  enormous  marshes  of  wild  rice  which 
bar  the  mouth  of  Fox  River,  vivid  in  their  mass  of 
changing  greenery  when  swayed  by  the  breeze  and 
lightened  by  the  sun. 

This  was  tlie  day  when  the  China  Sea  was  sup- 
posed to  be  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Great  Lakes,  there  being  as  yet  no  knowledge  of 
the  immense  wirlth  of  the  American  continent. 
Nicolet  had  lieard  when  among  the  Ni])issings,  that 


•  Tlicrc  ix  no  linifjcr  ;iiiv  (iiicstioii  <it  llierc  being  tides  in  C.reen  Hay,  liiil  wIkIIut  cniised  by 
the  winds  or  by  lun.-ir  affection  is  undecided. 


IN   THE   BEGINNING.  29 

at  Green  Bay  he  would  meet  a  strange  people,  who 
had  come  from  beyond  "  a  great  water  "  lying  to 
the  west.  He  was  therefore  prepared  to  find  there 
a  colony  of  Chinamen  or  Japanese,  if  indeed  Green 
Bay  were  not  the  Orient  itself.  His  mistake  was  a 
natural  one,  considering  the  crudity  of  the  geo- 
graphical information  then  current. 

The  "  strange  people  "  proved  to  be  Winnebago 
Indians.  A  branch  of  the  Dakotas,  or  Sioux,  a 
distinct  race  from  the  Algonkins,  they  appear  to 
have  been  stranded  in  Wisconsin,  when  the  great 
body  of  their  kin,  probably  the  original  Mound- 
builders,  had  withdrawn  from  the  State  to  the 
trans-Mississippi  country.  They  were  as  a  wedge 
remaining  in  the  heart  of  the  Algonkin  territory 
and  long  maintaining,  despite  all  changes  in  political 
mastery,  a  firm  foothold  on  the  interlocked  water- 
way of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  Rivers.  The  "great 
water"  spoken  of  by  the  Nipissings  and  supposed 
by  Nicolet  to  mean  the  China  Sea,  was  the  Missis- 
sippi River,  beyond  which  the  Dakota  race  held  full 
sway. 

The  canoe  was  run  into  a  cove  iust  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Fox,  and  a  short  halt  made  while 
Champlain's  forest  ambassador  attired  himself  in  a 
gorgeous  damask  gown,  decorated  with  g^yly- 
colored  birds  and  flowers,  a  ceremonial  garment 
with  which  he  had  taken  care  to  provide  himself  at 


30  IN   THE   BEGINNING. 

Quebec,  expecting  to  meet  mandarins  who  would 
be  similarly  dressed.  As  he  stepped  ashore,  a  short 
distance  up  the  river,  and  thus,  first  of  all  Euro- 
peans, trod  the  soil  of  what  is  now  Wisconsin, 
Nicolet  was  met  by  a  horde  of  nearly  naked  Winne- 
bagoes  who  hailed  him  as  a  Manitou,  or  "  wonder- 
ful man." 

It  must  have  been  no  small  disappointment  to 
the  explorer  to  be  thus  met  by  breech-clouted  sav- 
ages when  he  had  fondly  anticipated  the  formal 
greetings  of  Oriental  courtiers.  But  the  politic 
envoy  smothered  his  chagrin  and,  the  rustling  skirts 
of  his  silken  robe  sweeping  the  ground,  advanced 
boldly  among  the  astonished  barbarians,  discharg- 
ing the  pistols  which  he  held  in  either  hand.  The 
warriors  were  much  startled  at  this  singular  appari- 
tion, while  women  and  children  fled  in  terror  from 
the  Manitou  who  carried  with  him  lightning  and 
thunder. 

But  after  duly  impressing  them  with  the  solem- 
nity of  his  mission,  Nicolet  soon  doffed  his  fanciful 
costume  and  met  the  Winnebagoes  in  friendly 
council.  The  news  of  his  arrival  quickly  spread  to 
neighjjoring  villages  and  trilx's,  and  a  great  feast 
was  held,  at  which  some  four  or  five  thousand 
Indians  as^(•mbk•d,  according  to  the  old  chronicle,*' 
and  de\(»iirccl  one  huiKlird  muX  twenty  beavers  with 

•  Jesuit  "  Kcl.ition,"  i'')n- 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  3 1 

divers  other  viands.  There  was  a  great  deal  of 
proHx  oratory  in  various  tongues,  accompanied  by 
the  exchange  of  wampum  belts  and  other  presents 
and  the  smoking  of  innumerable  pipes  of  tobacco, 
with  the  usual  result  of  an  agreement  on  the  j)art 
of  the  red  men  to  forever  keep  the  peace  towards  all 
Frenchmen. 

Leaving  the  Winnebagoes  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Fox,  Nicolet  pursued  his  way  up  that  stream.  He 
was  obliged  to  make  portages  around  the  falls  of 
Des  Peres,  the  two  Kakalins,  Grand  Chute  and 
Winnebago  Rapids  —  where  the  cities  of  Depere, 
Kaukauna,  Appleton  and  Neenah  are  located  in 
our  day.  The  Lower  F'ox  is  a  picturesque,  deep 
and  rapid  stream.  It  flows  between  terraced,  vine- 
clad  banks  which  for  the  most  part  rise  from  twenty 
to  fifty  feet  in  height,  varied  now  and  then  by  park- 
like glades  and  bold,  rocky  bluffs.  The  river  is 
now  lined  with  prosperous  towns  whose  numerous 
factories  are  dependent  upon  its  abundant  water- 
power. 

When  Nicolet  carried  the  banner  of  France 
along  this  dimpled  flood,  the  valley  was  the  seat  of 
a  considerable  Indian  pojnilation,  there  being  vil- 
lages at  each  of  the  rapids  and  on  Doty's  Island,  at 
the  outlet  of  Lake  Winnebago,  while  upon  the 
table  lands  which  stretch  away  on  either  side  were 
large  fields  of  maize  ;  for  these  people  were  thrifty, 


32  IN  THE   BEGINNING. 

as  Indians  go,  placing  their  grain  in  caches  for 
winter  use  and  bartering  their  surplus  with  neigh- 
boring tribes. 

Emerging  upon  the  broad  expanse  of  Lake 
Winnebao-o,  amono'  the  most  charmino;  of  our 
Western  inland  waters,  Nicolet  cautiously  wended 
his  way  from  headland  to  headland,  until  at  last  he 
found  the  point  where  the  Upper  Fox  empties  its 
flood  into  the  lake — a  broad  bay  fringed  with 
marshes  of  wild  rice,  beyond  which  rose  gentle 
prairie  slopes,  backed  on  the  horizon  by  agreeable 
oak  openings.  Where  to-day  is  the  city  of  Osh- 
kosh — with  its  thirty-odd  thousand  industrious 
inhabitants,  the  river  lined  with  saw  mills  and  their 
outlying  rafts,  their  lines  of  piling,  and  their  great 
yards  of  newly-sawn  lumber —  were  then  but  a  half- 
dozen  Indian  wigwams  at  the  junction  of  the  river 
and  lake,  a  few  canoes  on  the  gravelly  beach  and 
elsewhere  solitude. 

There  is  no  record  of  Nicolet  ]:)ausing  here, 
afterwards  a  famous  camping  ground  for  French 
voyaj^eiirs.  I  le  ])ushed  on  in  search  of  the  Mas- 
coutins,  oi"  I'^ire  Nalif)n,  whose  jDrincipal  camp  was 
still  some  thirty  nn'les  to  the  southwest,  up  the  Fox. 
While  the  shores  of  the  Vox  below  Lake  Win- 
nebago are  iniggcd  and  gloomy,  and  the  dark  pine 
forcist  closed  in  the  view  of  tlie  explorer  as  though 
solid    ramparts    lined   his   naiTow  path,   the    Upper 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  33 

Fox  was  alike  depressing,  although  from  another 
cause. 

The  Indians  have  a  tradition  that  the  numerous 
rivers  called  by  them  Fox  were  so  named  because 
their  winding  paths  resembled  the  course  of  a  pur- 
sued fox.  In  regard  to  this  particular  Fox  River, 
above  Lake  Winnebago,  there  is  still  another  tale. 
The  Upper  Fox  valley  is  for  the  most  part  an  im- 
mense widespread  tract  of  reeds,  wild  rice  and  willow 
clumps,  with  dark,  forest-girt  ridges  hemming  in 
the  marshy  expanse,  through  which  the  gleaming 
river  doubles  upon  itself  like  a  serpent  in  agony. 
The  red  men,  who  have  an  eye  to  the  picturesque 
in  Nature,  tell  us  that  once  a  monster  snake  lay 
down  for  the  night  in  the  swamp  between  the 
Wisconsin  River  portage  and  the  Lake  of  the 
Winnebagoes.  The  dew  accumulated  upon  it  as  it 
lay,  and  when  the  morning  came  it  wriggled  and 
shook  the  water  from  its  back,  and  disappeared 
down  the  river  which  it  had  thus  created  in  its 
nocturnal  bed. 

Through  this  sedgy  couch  of  the  serpent,  Nicolet 
pushed  on,  often  losing  his  way  in  some  vexatious 
cul-de-sac,  obliged  to  retrace  his  steps  with  the 
frequent  danger  of  mistaking  a  branch  for  the  main 
channel  ;  for  such  was  the  height  of  the  wall  of 
reeds  upon  either  side  that  it  was  impossible  to 
overlook    it    even    when    standing    upright    in    the 


34  J-^  THE   BEGINNING. 

canoe,  and  the  view  was  generally  confined  to  the 
few  rods  of  winding  river  ahead  and  astern. 

Above  where  Omro  village  now  lies  nestled  upon 
a  fertile  bench  which  is  hugged  closely  by  the 
flood,  cranberry  bogs  were  first  encountered.  Near 
the  present  city  of  Berlin,  in  Green  Lake  County  — 
in  our  day  the  seat  of  an  extensive  cranberry  in- 
terest—  prairies  came  down  to  the  southern  bank. 
Upon  a  clayey  beach  Nicolet  stranded  his  canoe, 
for  upon  an  eminence  two  miles  or  so  south  of  the 
river  *  lay  the  palisaded  town  of  the  Mascoutins, 
the  object  of  his  search. 

Had  Nicolet  proceeded  up  the  river  he  would  in 
three  days  have  reached  the  low  plain  of  but  a  mile 
and  a  half  in  width,  which,  at  the  modern  city  of 
Portage,  separates  the  waters  of  the  Fox  from  the 
Wisconsin  —  a  slight  and  often  overflowed  water- 
shed between  the  basins  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Mississippi.  Small  exertion  on  his  part,  had 
he  been  aware  of  the  fact,  might  have  made  him 
the  first  white  discoverer  of  the  Upper  Mississippi. 
This  was,  however,  reserved  for  others  of  his  race. 
He  went  no  farther  west  than  the  village  of  the 
Mascoutins,  and  then,  having  secured  them  to  the 
iM-ench  interest,  took  up  his  path  over  the  prairies 
to  the  south   and  visited   the  nation   of  the   Illinois, 


*  Katlicr  AUoui;/.,  wlm  visilfil  tlic  Mascoutins  in  1670,  locates  tlu'  foit  of  tlicsc  people  a 
rr'iich  league  (2.4  English  tulles),  "over  beautiful  prairies,"  to  the  south  of  the  river. 


IN  THE   BEGINNING.  35 

returning  to  Quebec  by  the  way  of  Lake  Michigan 
the  following  year. 

Thus  had  the  redoubtable  Jean  Nicolet  pursued 
an  amphibious  journey  of  over  two  thousand  miles 
through  a  trackless  wilderness,  won  to  New  France 
the  fealty  of  half  a  dozen  heretofore  unknown  tribes 
and  made  the  first  step  in  the  European  conquest 
of  Wisconsin  and  the  Northwest. 


CHAPTER    II. 


DISCOVERY    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 


OON  after  the  return 
of  Nicolet  and  his 
resumption  of  duty 
at  Three  Rivers, 
the  governor  of  New 
France,  Samuel  de 
Champlain,  died  at 
Quebec.  It  was  on 
Christmas  Day,  1635, 
that  this  fearless  s:e- 
nius  passed  away,  and  with  him  appeared  to  depart, 
ft)r  a  time,  the  spirit  of  the  colony.  The  Iroquois, 
whom  Chamjjlain  had  sadly  offended,  took  advan- 
tage of  the  hick  of  mihtary  leadership  in  New 
I*"rance,  to  wreak  their  vengeance  on  the  French 
and  tlie  Algonkin  tril)es  that  had  communion 
with  tliem.  The  Dutch  traders  at  Albany,  ever 
their  hrm  friends,  had  i)lentifully  supplied  the  Five 
Nations  with  fn-e-arms  and  ammunition,  and  these, 
the  best-hrai p.cd  of  American  Indians,  were  soon 
a   match   for    the    fnicst    shots    in    Canada.     They 

36 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  t^J 

now    began    to    repay    the    French    in    their    own 
coin. 

The  colonists  were  chased  within  their  gates,  and 
the  Algonkin  allies  sadly  harried,  whole  tribes 
being  driven  as  far  west  as  Wisconsin,  with  great 
slaughter  and  suffering.  Exploration  ceased  for 
some  years  ;  although  in  1641  two  Jesuit  mission- 
aries, Isaac  Jogues  and  Charles  Raymbault,  pro- 
ceeded on  a  tour  of  inspection  as  far  as  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  following  the  path  pointed  out  by  Nicolet, 
and  there  preached  to  two  thousand  Ojibways  and 
other  Algonkins,  who  had  been  collected  to  meet 
the  visitors.  But  Jogues  was  captured  by  the 
Iroquois,  a  year  later,  while  on  his  return  to  the 
lower  St.  Lawrence,  and  Raymbault  died  about  the 
same  time,  so  nothing  came  of  this  adventurous 
expedition. 

There  is  no  record  of  any  white  man  being  in 
Wisconsin  between  the  autumn  of  1634,  when 
Nicolet  made  the  initial  canoe  voyage  up  the  Fox, 
and  the  winter  of  1658-59.  It  was  in  the  month 
of  June,  1658,  when  Pierre  d'Esprit,  Sieur  Radisson, 
set  out  with  his  sister's  husband,  Medard  Chouart, 
Sieur  des  Groseilliers,  upon  a  voyage  up  the 
Ottawa  River  to  the  far  Northwest,  determined  "to 
travell  and  see  countreys."  Radisson  was  already 
much  of  a  traveler  in  savage  wilds.  In  1652,  hav- 
ing been  captured  near  his  home  in  Three   Rivers, 


T,S  DISCOVERY   OF   7 HE   MISSISSIPPI. 

by  a  band  of  marauding  Iroquois,  he  was  adopted 
into  the  Mohawk  tribe  ;  but  he  finally  made  his 
escape  to  the  Dutch  at  Albany  and  sailed  to 
Holland,  returning  to  Three  Rivers  in  1654.  In 
1657,  he  went  with  the  Jesuits  Ragueneau  and 
Du  Peron  to  their  Onondaga  mission,  which  was 
clandestinely  abandoned  during  the  night  of  March 
20,  1658,  hardly  three  months  before  his  departure 
for  the  Northwest,  in  the  company  of  Groseilliers. 

Seven  years  later,  when  these  two  adventurers 
offered  their  services  to  King  Charles  II.,  to  open 
up  Hudson's  Bay  to  English  fur-trading  interests  — 
they  were  alternately  employed  under  the  flags  of 
Great  Britain  and  France,  as  fancy  or  their  self- 
interest  dictated  —  Radisson  wrote  out  his  Memoirs 
in  English,  for  the  edification  of  the  King.  An 
unlearned  but  brave  and  witty  Frenchman,  Radis- 
son's  narratives,  in  a  language  he  was  ill  versed  in, 
are  unique  specimens  of  "  English  as  she  is  wrote ;" 
they  are,  however,  valuable  records  of  a  series  of 
most  remarkable  explorations  in  the  American 
wilderness  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Radisson 
was  an  acute  observer  and  very  much  of  a  philoso- 
])her  in  his  way. 

Some  ilurons  served  these  adventurous  mer- 
chants as  their  guides  to  the  up])er  country,  and 
they  staid  for  some  time  in  the  villages  of  the 
former  —  appaiciilly    on    one    of     the     Manitoulin 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  39 

islands.  On  the  Great  ManitouHn,  they  visited  the 
Ottawas,  and  when  winter  came  on  pushed  south- 
westward  to  the  Pottawatomie  country  —  the  islands 
at  the  mouth  of  Green  Bay,  and  the  mainland  to 
the  southward  along  the  western  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan.  They  spent  several  months  among 
these  friendly  Wisconsin  people. 

In  the  spring,  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  followed 
the  wake  of  Nicolet  by  going  up  Fox  River,  through 
the  Winnebago  country,  to  visit  the  Mascoutins. 
The  latter  told  them  of  the  Sioux,  their  neighbors 
to  the  west ;  also  of  a  wandering  tribe,  the  Christi- 
nos  or  Crees,  who  lived  on  the  shores  of  Hudson's 
Bay  in  the  summer  and  along  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Superior  in  the  winter. 

Radisson  speaks  with  enthusiasm  of  their  kindly 
treatment  by  the  Mascoutins  and  says,  "  We  ware 
4  moneths  in  our  voyage  without  doeing  any  thing 
but  goe  from  river  to  river."  He  alludes,  in- 
cidently,  to  "ye  great  river"  into  which  he  and 
Groseilliers  were  conducted  by  their  Indian  friends, 
and  describes  a  stream  which  answers  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi. It  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  in  the 
course  of  these  four  months  of  water  journeys 
as  Q:uests  of  the  Mascoutins,  wherein  thev  were 
anxious  "to  be  knowne  with  the  remotest  people" 
and  to  see  all  there  was  to  be  seen,  the  adventurers 
trimmed  their  bark  to  the  current  of   the   Missis- 


40  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MTSSISSIPPI. 

sippi  —  antedating  the  discovery  claimed  for  La 
Salle  *  by  not  less  than  eleven  years,  and  that 
of  Joliet  and  Marquette  by  fourteen  years. 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  their  visit  to  the  Mas- 
coutins,  the  adventurers  returned  by  the  way  of 
Green  Bay  and  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw,  in 
company  with  a  party  of  their  hosts,  to  Sault  Ste. 
Marie.  After  cruising  along  a  portion  of  the 
southeastern  shores  of  Lake  Superior,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Sault,  in  the  prosecution  of  their  fur 
trade,  they  returned  to  Lower  Canada  by  way  of 
the  accustomed  route  of  the  Ottawa  River,  arriving 
at  Three  Rivers  about  the  first  of  June,  1660. 

Radisson  again  set  out  for  the  upper  country,  in 
company  with  Groseilliers,  in  August,  1661,  With 
them  were  six  other  French  fur-traders,  and  the 
aged  Jesuit  missionary,  Rene  Menard,  together  with 
several  small  bands  of  Hurons  and  Ottawas  return- 
ing home  from  a  trading  trip  to  Three  Rivers. 
The  little  fleet  of  canoes  closely  skirted  the  rugged 
south  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  and  the  whites 
were  the  first  of  their  race  to  see  the  Pictured 
Rocks.  At  Keweenaw  Bay,  where  they  arrived 
the  fifteenth  of  OctolDcr,  Menard  and  the  other 
k'l-cnchnu'ii,  together  wilh  a  party  of  Ottawas,  were 
left;  while  Kadisson  and  ( irosLMllIers  pushed  on  to 
the   west.      I\)it aging  across  the  great   Keweenaw 

•  Miirfiry,  Vol.  I.  pp.  v  I,  Sl'^,  ,179- 


DISCO  VERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  41 

Point,  they  visited  a  village  of  Christinos,  some 
miles  northeast  of  Montreal  River,  where  there 
was  an  abundance  of  buffalo,  moose  and  beaver. 
While  there  they  learned  of  the  copper  mines  which 
were  then  being  worked  from  time  to  time  by  the 
Indians ;  the  metal  was  pounded  smooth  with 
stones  and  fashioned  with  much  skill  into  a  ijreat 
variety  of  curious  implements  which,  with  those  of 
stone,  were  afterwards  abandoned  when  the  spread 
of  the  French  fur-trade  enabled  the  savages  to  secure 
European  implements  at  a  far  less  expenditure  of 
labor. 

Near  the  Montreal  River,  some  of  the  Huron 
companions  of  the  adventurers  left  them,  to  proceed 
overland  by  a  well-worn  trail  to  their  village  about 
the  sources  of  the  Chippewa  River.  The  French- 
men pushed  on  with  the  remainder  of  the  Hurons 
and  after  a  portage  across  what  is  now  known  as 
Oak  Point,  in  Ashland  County,  entered  Chequame- 
gon  Bay  —  a  noble  sheet  of  water,  fringed  by 
the  picturesque  Apostle  Islands,  and  to-day  the 
most  popular  of  the  Lake  Superior  summer  resorts. 

It  was  lonely  and  dreary  enough,  however,  when 
Radisson  and  his  companion  scrambled  ashore 
from  their  bark  canoe,  after  a  tedious  voyage,  and 
stretched  their  cramped  legs  upon  the  beach  near 
where  the  city  of  Ashland  nestles  to-day.  Winter 
was    just  setting    in,   the    waters   of    the    bay   were 


42  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

taking  on  that  black  and  sullen  aspect  peculiar 
to  the  season,  the  islands  looked  gloomy  indeed,  in 
their  dark  evergreen  mantles,  while  before  the 
venturesome  traders  a  dense  and  dark  forest 
stretched  southward  for  hundreds  of  miles.  Here 
and  there  in  the  primeval  depths  was  a  small 
cluster  of  starveling  Algonkins,  still  trembling 
from  fear  of  a  return  of  the  Iroquois  who  had 
chased  them  from  Canada  into  these  far-away 
swamps  and  matted  woods,  where  their  safety  lay 
in  hiding.  At  great  intervals,  uncertain  trails  led 
from  village  to  village,  and  the  rivers  were  in  places 
convenient  highways  ;  these  narrow  paths,  however, 
beset  with  danger  in  a  thousand  shapes,  but  em- 
phasized the  unspeakable  terrors  of  the  wilderness. 
The  Frenchmen  built  near  where  they  landed, 
what  they  called  a  "fort" — a  small  log  hut  oc- 
cupying the  extremity  of  a  spit  of  land  ;  the  door 
opened  towards  the  water  front,  while  the  land 
side,  to  the  rear  of  the  house,  was  defended  by  a 
salient  of  palisades  stretching  from  bank  to  bank 
of  the  narrow  promontory.  All  about  the  fort  they 
laid  l)oughs,  one  upon  another;  and  in  addition  to 
this  stretched  a  long  cord  upon  which  were  strung 
a  number  of  the  small  hawk-bells  commonly  used  in 
the  fur-trade  for  purposes  of  gift  and  l^artcr.  It  was 
expected  tliat  iu  case  of  a  night  attack  the  enemy 
would  run    afoul    of   the  bells,  the    ringing  of   which 


IN   THE   WISCONSIN    FOREST. 


DJSCOl'liRY   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  45 

would  arouse  the  garrison.  These  ingenious  de- 
fenses were  not  put  to  the  test,  although  they 
doubtless  had  a  good  moral  effect  in  keeping  the 
thieving  Hurons  at  a  respectful  distance  from  the 
white  men's  stores. 

At  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  the  bulk  of  these 
stores  were  secretly  cached  and  the  traders  pro- 
ceeded with  their  dusky  companions  to  the  prin- 
cipal Huron  village  at  the  head  of  the  Chippewa 
River,  passing  the  winter  of  1661-62  in  that 
vicinity.  The  season  was  phenomenally  severe  and 
the  Hurons  could  not  find  enough  game  to  properly 
sustain  life.  A  famine  ensued  in  the  camp,  the 
tragical  details  of  which  are  painted  by  Radisson 
with  a  painful  minuteness  worthy  of  Hogarth.  In 
the  early  spring,  upon  a  search  for  provisions,  they 
visited  the  Buffalo  band  of  the  Sioux,  in  the  INIille 
Lac  region  of  Minnesota,  staying  with  theni  for 
some  six  weeks,  and  then  the  Frenchmen  returned 
to  Chequamegon  Bay,  where  they  built  another 
fort,  this  time  on  Oak  Point.  After  a  time  spent 
here,  during  which  Radisson  fell  ill  and  when  both 
the  explorers  encountered  much  hardship  from  the 
backwardness  of  the  season,  they  ventured  with  their 
goods  as  far  northwest  as  the  Christine  villages  on 
Lake  Assiniboine,  and  appear  to  have  returned  to 
Three  Rivers  in  1662. 

Father  Menard,  who  had  been  left  at   Keweenaw 


46  DISCOVERY   OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

Bay  by  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  in  October,  1661, 
was  not  successful  in  his  attempts  to  convert  the 
Ottawas  there,  and  set  out  the  following  June 
for  the  Huron  villages  on  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Black  and  Chippewa  rivers.  There  has  been  some 
question  as  to  how  Menard  reached  Black  River 
—  whether  across  country  by  Indian  trails,  or  by 
the  way  of  the  Menomonee  River,  Green  Bay,  the 
Fox-Wisconsin  watercourse  and  the  Mississippi. 
The  weight  of  testimony  is  in  favor  of  the  latter 
route  which  was,  as  well,  the  easier  of  the  two.* 

It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  Menard  and  his  ser- 
vant, Jean  Guerin,  a  gunsmith  by  trade,  were  upon 
the  waters  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  two  years  after 
Radisson's  voyage  and  eleven  before  that  of  Joliet. 
The  journey  had  been  a  long  and  painful  one,  in 
the  heat  of  midsummer;  they  suffered  from  hunger, 
bruised  feet  and  myriads  of  mosquitoes,  while  the 
Indian  guides  were  often  insolent  and  cruel  in 
their  exactions.  On  the  seventh  of  August,  while 
portaging  around  some  rapids  in  the  Black  River, 
Menard  lost  the  blind  trail  and  was  never  after 
seen  by  his  i)arly.  He  was  either  killed  b\'  lurking 
savages,  or  died  from  exposure.  His  keltic  was 
afterwards  seen  by  (iuerin  in  the  hands  of  a  Sac 
Indian,   while   his   breviary  and   cassock   were   said 


•Sec    Taillian''t  Perrol,    p.   92;    also    I'r.iiKiiU'lin's  timp  (i^S.SI,   in  VJ\\\sin^f.  Narra/ive 
and  Critical  lliitory  0/  Aincrka,  Vol.  IV.  p.  2_(ii. 


DISCOVERY   OF   THE   M/SS/SS/J'PL  47 

to  have  been  found  in  the  possession  of  the 
Sioux. 

Menard's  death  left  the  Ottawa  mission  on  Lake 
Superior  vacant,  and  in  August,  1665,  Claude 
Allouez,  another  Jesuit  priest,  was  sent  to  reopen 
it.  He  chose  his  site  on  the  southwestern  shore  of 
Chequamegon  Bay,  probably  between  the  present 
cities  of  Ashland  and  Washburn.  This  reQ:ion 
came  to  be  called  La  Pointe,  while  the  mission  it- 
self was  named  in  honor  of  the  Holy  Ghost.*  To 
the  summer  tourists  who  now  flock  by  hundreds  to 
Chequamegon  Bay,  are  shown  some  ruins  at  the 
La  Pointe  of  to-day,  on  Madeline  Island,  opposite 
Bayfield,  which  they  are  assured  are  those  of  the 
ancient  Jesuit  mission  house.  But  the  original 
La  Pointe  mission  was  on  the  mainland,  fifteen 
miles  or  so  to  the  southwest.  The  island  mission 
house,  widely  advertised  as  that  of  Allouez  and 
Marquette,  is  scarcely  sixty  years  old. 

At  La  Pointe,  Father  Allouez  found  in  progress 
a  council  wherein  a  dozen  petty  bands  were  trying, 
after  their  blustering  fashion,  to  agree  upon  a  scalp- 
ing expedition  against  the  Sioux  ;  but  the  good 
Father  persuaded  them  to  the  contrary  and  thus 
secured  for  a  time  that  tranquillity  so  essential  to 
his  aims.  The  news  of  his  coming  was  soon  spread 
far  and   wide   and    there  flocked   to    his  rude  bark 

*  La  Pointe  du  Saint  Esprit. 


48  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MlSSISSim. 

chapel  the  representatives  of  many  tribes,  to  stare 
in    open-mouthed    wonder    at   his    glittering    altar 
ornaments  and  silken  vesture,  as  well  as  to  barter 
for  utensils,  weapons  and  ornaments  of  European 
manufacture ;    for  Allouez's   mission  was    likewise 
a  trading  post.     The  Ottawas  and  Chippewas,  with 
their  large  fields  of  Indian  corn  and  their  stationary 
villages,   were   his    immediate    neighbors,  the    visi- 
tors from  distant  parts    being    the    Pottawatomies 
and  the   Miamis,  from  the  shores  of   Lake   Michi- 
gan ;    the     Kickapoos    from    Western    Wisconsin ; 
the  Sacs  and   Foxes   from  the   country  about  the 
Fox    and    Wolf    Rivers ;    the    Illinois,   living    still 
farther  to  the  south,  and  the  Sioux  of  the  western 
plains,    these     latter    bringing    him    news    of    the 
"  Messipi,"  a  great   river  which  ran  through  their 
lands.     But  despite  his  large  congregations,  Allouez 
made  little  headway  among  them,  being  consoled 
for  his  hardships  and  ill-treatment  by  the  devotion 
of  a  mere  handful  of  insignificant  followers. 

Allouez  labored  thus  alone  in  the  wilderness, 
hoping  against  hope,  for  four  years,  varying  the 
monotony  of  his  dreary  task  by  occasional  canoe 
trips  to  Quebec,  to  report  progress  to  his  superior. 
Father  James  Marquette,  a  more  youthful  zealot, 
was  at  last  sent  to  relieve  him,  and  in  September, 
1669,  arrived  at  La  Pointe  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
where    he    and     h'atlicr     Claudius     Dablon,    newly 


DISCOVERY   OF  THE   M/SS/SS/EJ'/.  49 

appointed  as  Jesuit  Superior  of  the  upper  country, 
had  been  engaged  during  the  summer  in  establish- 
ing a  successful  mission.  It  took  Marquette,  sadly 
hampered  by  snow  and  ice,  a  full  month  to  make 
the  trip  from  the  Sault  to  Chequamegon  Bay. 

Father  Allouez,  upon  being  thus  relieved  from  a 
work  that  had  doubtless  palled  upon  him,  proceeded 
upon  invitation  of  the  Pottawatomies  to  Green  Bay, 
where  he  arrived  early  in  December.  While  the  en- 
tire region  thereabout  was  styled  "  Bay  des  Puants  " 
—  afterwards  Green  Bay — the  St.  Francis  Xavier 
Mission  now  opened  by  Allouez  was  not  on  the 
bay  shore,  but  upon  the  south  side  of  the  Fox  River, 
some  six  miles  above  its  mouth  —  the  site  of  the 
present  manufacturing  city  of  Depere.*  This  was 
the  second  Jesuit  establishment  within  what  is  now 
Wisconsin.  At  Depere  are  the  first  rapids  en- 
countered in  the  ascension  of  Fox  River ;  it  is 
therefore  the  head  of  natural  navigation  for  the 
large  vessels  of  our  day,  and  was  then  the  first 
canoe  portage.  The  banks  are  high  and  command 
a  fine  view  up  and  down  the  river  and  out 
into  the  bay  beyond  ;  the  soil  is  fertile  and  spring- 
water  abundant.  It  was  from  early  days  a  favorite 
rallying  point  for  the  natives ;  and  this  fact,  added  to 
its  natural  advantages,  made  the  site  an  admira- 
ble one  for  Allouez's  enterprise. 

*  Corrupted  from  Afission  dcs  f'crcs,  or  "  iMission  of  the  P'athers." 


50  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MlSSISSim. 

It  was  a  hybrid  village  that  the  Father  had  come 
to,  at  this  Depere  portage.  There  were  here  rep- 
resented the  Winnebagoes,  who  were  lords  of  the 
manor ;  the  Pottawatomies  from  the  neighboring 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  united  Sacs  and 
Foxes  who  practically  controlled  the  highway 
to  the  Mississippi.  There  were  few  members 
of  these  intermarried  tribes  eager  to  be  baptized, 
but  they  looked  pleased  when,  during  the  winter, 
the  good  man  went  among  the  rude  bark  lodges 
and  matted  tepees  of  his  shiftless  parishioners  and 
cared  for  the  sick  and  spoke  words  of  encourage- 
ment to  the  downhearted  ;  and  when  he  visited 
neighboring  villages  on  similar  errands  of  mercy, 
he  was,  as  a  rule,  kindly  received. 

In  April,  Father  Allouez  established  the  mission 
of  St.  Mark  among  the  Foxes  on  the  forest-girt 
waters  of  Wolf  River,  the  chief  tributary  of  the  Fox  ; 
probably  near  Lake  Shawano,  later  the  chief  seat  of 
the  Chippewa  nation.  In  the  course  of  the  summer 
he  went  to  the  Sault  to  see  his  superior,  Dablon, 
who  returned  with  him  to  St.  Francis  Xavier  in 
Sej^tember.  About  this  lime  serious  trouble  had 
arisen  on  Lake  Superior.  The  Ottawas  and 
Ifurons  at  La  ]\)inte,  arrogant  in  the  possession  of 
fire-arms  o])tained  from  the  iMX'nch  in  trade,  had  at 
last  i)rovokc(l  the  western  Sioux  to  war,  and  Mar- 
quette   was    powerless  to   prevent    the    outbreak    of 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  5  I 

the  latter,  who  rejected  his  peace  proposals  and 
imperiously  sent  back  the  presents  which  he  had 
forwarded  to  these  autocrats  of  the  plains.  The 
result  was  that  the  La  Pointe  Indians  were  driven 
eastward  alons:  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake,  like 
leaves  before  an  autumn  blast,  the  Ottawas  taking 
up  their  home  in  the  Manitoulin  Islands  of  Lake 
Huron,  and  the  Hurons  accompanying  Marquette 
to  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw.*  There  he  established 
on  the  mainland  west  of  Mackinaw  island  a  mission 
which  he  called  St.  Ignace. 

The  Great  Lake  now  being  closed  to  the 
French,  it  became  necessary  to  stimulate  St. 
Francis  Xavier  mission,  in  the  hope  that  the 
nations  beyond  might  be  reached  by  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  river  route,  the  entrance  to  which  it 
was  important  to  keep  in  the  control  of  the  Jesuits. 
Dablon  and  Allouez  therefore  made  an  expedi- 
tion up  the  Fox  River.  At  the  Kakalin  rapids, 
they  found  on  a  high  bank  an  Indian  idol  that  had 
been  set  up  by  the  Winnebagoes.  Dablon  de- 
scribes it  as  "  a  rock  formed  naturally  in  the  shape 
of  a  man's  bust,"  and  says  that,  it  being  the  deity 
of  the  waterfall,  its  face  was  daubed  in  fantastic 
colors  by  Indians  who  had  successfully  stemmed 
the    torrent,    and    that    "sacrifices    of    tobacco    or 


*The  Roman   Catholic  mission  at  La  Pointe  was  not  re-established  until  one  hundred 

and  sevent}'  years  later. 


52  DISCOVERY  OF  2  HE   MISSISSIPFI. 

arrows  or  paintings  "  were  made  to  it.  This  gaudy 
god  of  the  heathens  the  priests  toppled  over  into 
the  river  and  went  on  their  way  rejoicing.  Above 
Lake  Winnebago,  they  visited  the  Foxes  and  the 
Mascoutins  —  the  latter  still  occupying  the  vil- 
lage in  which  they  were  found  by  Nicolet  and 
Radisson.  Dablon  records  that  in  their  journey  they 
frequently  met  great  droves  of  "wild  cows,"  prob- 
ably deer,  and  often  found  buffalo  grazing  in  the 
rich  pastures  along  the  Fox ;  and  noticed  that 
because  of  this  abundance  of  food  the  Indians  of 
the  region  were  "  not  obliged  to  separate  by  families 
during  the  hunting  season,  as  the  savages  of  other 
countries  do." 

Later  in  the  year,  Dablon  went  down  to  Quebec 
to  become  superior  of  his  order  in  Canada,  send- 
ing to  the  Sault  as  his  district  successor,  Henry 
Nouvel.  In  1671,  Nouvel  sent  to  Green  Bay 
another  priest,  Louis  Andre,  to  assist  Allouez  in 
ministering  to  the  savages  at  St.  Francis  Xavier 
and  St.  Mark.  Andre  appears,  however,  to  have 
become  the  chief  ministrant  at  these  two  missions, 
leaving  Allouez  to  rove  among  the  Foxes,  the 
Mascoutins,  the  Kickapoos,  the  Illinois,  the  Miamis 
and  the  Weas  —  the  first  regularly-installed  itiner- 
ant preacher  in  Wisconsin.  We  are  told  that 
Andre  was  jiarticularly  successful  with  the  chil- 
dren   at    Depere    ra|)i(ls,  where  he   taught   them    to 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MISSISSII'FI. 


53 


sing  psalms  of  Christian  praise  and  spirited  songs 
ridiculing  superstition,  whilst  he  accompanied 
them  with  more  or  less  harmony  upon  the  flute. 
The  chiefs  were  stubborn  idolators,  however,  and 
stoutly  argued  with  him,  sometimes  getting  very 
angry,  as  theological  disputants  are  apt  to.     "  The 


devil,"  exclaimed  a  chief,  "  is  the  great  captain  : 
he  put  Christ  to  death,  and  will  kill  you!"  It 
was  a  hard  field  for  the  Christian  devotee,  but  he 
appears  to  have  had  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  in 
him,  and  neither  faltered  nor  complained,  even 
when    during    a    temporary   absence    his    hut    was 


54  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

burned  down  by  his  enemies  and  his  entire  winter 
stock  of  food  destroyed. 

Meanwhile  Allouezhad  met  with  a  certain  degree 
of  success  upon  his  travels.  At  the  Mascoutin  vil- 
lage, he  had  reared  a  chapel  of  reeds  which  he  styled 
the  mission  of  St.  James  ;  and  there,  on  Assump- 
tion Day,  1672,  this  pioneer  apostle  planted  a  tall 
cross  and  fervidly  preached  before  it  to  a  large 
audience  in  which  five  distinct  tribes  were 
represented. 

The  Jesuit  priests  were  not  the  only  whites  in 
Wisconsin  during  these  years  of  missionary  ac- 
tivity. The  coureurs  dc  bois  were  not  long  in  fol- 
lowing the  paths  pointed  out  by  the  traders  Nicolet, 
Radisson  and  Groseilliers  and  the  gunsmith  Guerin. 
The  trading  companions  of  Menard,  at  Keweenaw 
Bay,  had,  as  early  as  the  spring  of  1662,  penetrated 
to  Green  Bay,  probably  by  way  of  the  Menomonee, 
and  when  Allouez  set  out  from  the  Sault  for  Green 
Bay,  seven  years  later,  the  Pottawatomies,  he  tells 
us,  did  not  want  him  to  come  to  their  country  for 
the  purpose  of  instructing  them  in  the  faith,  "but 
to  soften  some  young  Frenchmen  who  were  among 
them  for  the  purposes  of  trading,  and  who  threat- 
ened  and   ill-treated  them." 

A  leader  in  tin's  band  of  lawless  traders,  whose 
roving  operations  extended  along  I'Ox  River  and 
the  western  shore  of    Lake  Michigan,  was  Nicholas 


DISCOVERY  OF  TIIK   M/SSISSI I'J'I.  55 

Perrot.  He  was  intelligent,  had  some  education, 
was  an  accomplished  woodsman,  and  from  boy- 
hood had  spent  his  life  among  the  western  savages. 
He  was  but  twenty-six  years  of  age  when  he  left 
Green  Bay  for  the  lower  country  in  charge  of  a 
fleet  of  canoes  laden  with  Wisconsin  furs  and  pro- 
pelled by  Indians. 

Upon  his  arrival  at  Quebec,  in  July,  he  was  en- 
gaged to  pilot  the  Sieur  Saint  Lusson,  deputy  of 
Intendant  Talon,  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  act  as 
his  interpreter.  The  objects  were,  to  regain  the 
friendship  of  all  the  tribes  living  upon  the  shores 
of  Lake  Superior  and  thus  cut  off  the  rivalry  of 
the  English,  who  were  now  receiving  large  con- 
signments of  fur  from  that  quarter ;  to  search  for 
copper  mines  in  the  Northwest;  and  to  "  discover 
the  Sea  of  the  South,"  *  the  thrifty  agent  paying  his 
way  from  the  profits  of  the  fur  trade  in  which  he 
was  permitted  to  engage  while  upon  the  expedition. 
Saint  Lusson  and  Perrot  proceeded,  in  October, 
to  the  Manitoulin  Islands,  in  Lake  Huron.  While 
Perrot  went  on  alone  to  attend  to  his  affairs  at 
Green  Bay,  Saint  Lusson  spent  the  winter  upon 
the  islands  hunting  and  trading.  They  met  in 
May,  1 67 1,  at  the  Sault. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  June,  after  the  conclusion  of 
a  treaty  of  friendship  with   the   naked   representa- 

*  The  Gulf  of  California. 


56  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

tives  of  a  dozen  forest  tribes,  Saint  Lusson  took 
formal  possession  of  the  Northwest,  in  the  name 
of  Louis  XIV.,  King  of  France.  His  witnesses 
were,  the  Jesuits  Dablon,  Allouez,  Andre  and  Dreuil- 
letes,  Perrot  as  interpreter,  Louis  Joliet  and  a 
number  of  other  coureurs  de  bois.  Thus  peacefully 
did  Wisconsin,  together  with  pretty  much  all  of 
the  neighboring  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  and 
north  of  the  Ohio,  come  under  the  domination  of 
France. 

Joliet  returned  to  Quebec  with  Saint  Lusson's 
party  and  there  met  the  recently  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  New  France,  Count  de  Frontenac,  a  man 
imbued  with  energetic  enterprise  and  an  ambition 
to  rival  Champlain  in  extending  the  boundaries  of 
the  province,  Frontenac  selected  Joliet  as  the 
proper  person  to  regularly  explore  the  Fox-Wis- 
consin waterway  and  the  Mississippi,  and  to  ascer- 
tain whether  the  great  river  really  flowed  into  the 
South  Sea  as  the  Indians  alleged.  That  Radis- 
son,  Groseilliers,  Menard  and  Guerin  had  already 
been  upon  the  Upper  Mississippi,  may  be  set  down 
as  reasonably  certain,  and  we  know  that  the  lower 
reaches  of  the  river  were  visited  by  De  Soto's  ill- 
fated  Spanish  cxj^cdition  as  early  as  1541.  But 
the  Spaniards  had  added  but  little  to  the  general 
fiiiul  of  knowledge  regarding  the  mighty  stream, 
and  the  chance  voyages  of   Radisson  and  Guerin 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  57 

were  scarcely  more  productive  of  information.  The 
fact  tliat  Joliet's  expedition  resulted  in  the  first 
definite  knowledge  of  the  river  and  its  Wisconsin 
approach  from  Green  Bay  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Arkansas,  and  blazed  a  broad  path  for  later  ad- 
venturers, entitles  his  name  to  hioh  credit  as  an 
original  explorer. 

At  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw,  Joliet  met  Father 
Marquette,  with  whom  he  was  on  friendly  relations, 
for  this  coureur  de  dots  had  in  his  youth  been  a 
bright  scholar  in  the  Jesuit  school  at  Quebec. 
Marquette,  himself  a  hardy  woodsman  and  expert 
canoeist,  had  probably  been  invited  by  Frontenac 
to  join  Joliet,  that  both  material  and  spiritual  inter- 
ests might  be  duly  represented.  At  all  events, 
when  Joliet  started  out  from  St.  Ignace,  May  17, 
1673,  Marquette  was  in  his  company,  though  in  no 
wise  officially  connected  with  the  enterprise.  Five 
voyageurs,  or  boatmen,  paddled  their  two  canoes, 
and  it  can  well  be  imagined  that  as  the  expedition 
set  forth  that  gay  spring  morning,  and  hugged  the 
forested  southern  shore  of  Upper  Michigan,  the 
hearts  of  the  adventurers  swelled  with  enthusiasm, 
thinking  of  the  strange  lands  and  stranger  people 
they  were  destined  soon  to  behold. 

They  made  such  excellent  progress  that  they 
arrived  at  the  now  well-known  Mascoutin  village  on 
the   Upper  Fox,  the  seventh  of  June.     Here  they 


58  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

obtained  guides,  for  the  Fox  above  this  point  is  but 
a  narrow  creek  winding  through  immense  reed 
swamps  ;  in  Joliet's  time  this  watery  labyrinth  was 
frequently  choked  with  vegetation,  and  without 
guides  passage  was  wel'1-nigh  impossible.  The 
swampy  portage  which  separates  these  sluggish  and 
insignificant  waters  from  the  broad,  swift  channel 
of  the  Wisconsin,  is  but  a  mile  and  a  half  in  width. 
With  high  water  in  the  Wisconsin,  this  plain  has' 
been  frequently  flooded  within  the  memory  of  men 
now  living,  so  that  continuous  canoe  passage  from 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi  was  possible 
for  weeks  at  a  time. 

But  such  fortune  did  not  await  Joliet  and  Mar- 
quette, and  they  were  obliged  to  make  the  portage. 
The  Wisconsin  River,  upon  which  they  were  now 
embarked,  presents  a  striking  contrast  to  the  Fox. 
Its  valley  is  from  three  to  five  miles  broad,  flanked 
on  either  side,  below  the  portage,  by  an  undulating 
range  of  imposing  bluffs,  from  one  hundred  and 
fifty  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  height. 
They  are  heavily  wooded  as  a  rule,  although  there 
is  now,  as  then,  much  variety  —  pleasant  slopes  and 
pocket  fields,  on  the  sweet  herbage  of  which  the 
travelers  saw  deer  and  buffalo  peacefully  grazing; 
naked  water-washed  escarpments,  rising  sheer  above 
the  stream  ;  terraced  hills,  with  eroded  faces,  as- 
cendiiT'-  in   a  regular  succession  of  benches  to  the 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE   M/SS/SS//'/'/.  59 

cliff-like  summits ;  steep  ii])lands  whose  forest 
growths  have  been  shattered  by  tornadoes,  and  ro- 
mantic ravines  worn  deep  by  spring  torrents  im- 
patient to  reach  the  river  level. 

Between  these  ranges  stretches  a  wide  expanse 
of  bottoms,  either  bog  or  sand  plain,  through  which 
the  swift  current  twists  and  bounds,  constantly  cut- 
ting out  new  channels  and  filling  old  ones  wnth  the 
debris.  As  it  thus  sweeps  along,  wdierever  its 
fancy  listeth,  here  to-day  and  there  to-morrow,  it 
forms  innumerable  islands  which  greatly  add  to 
the  picturesqueness  of  the  view.  These  islands  are 
often  mere  sand-bars,  sometimes  as  barren  as  Sa- 
hara, again  thick-grown  with  willows  and  seedling 
aspens ;  but  for  the  most  part  they  are  heavily 
wooded,  their  banks  gay  with  the  season's  flowers 
and  luxurious  vines  hanging  in  deep  festoons  from 
the  trees  which'  overhang  the  flood.  It  is  no  won- 
der that  the  gentle  Marquette  found  this  bewitch- 
ing valley  a  land  most  fair  to  see,  and  writes  in  his 
journal  with  enthusiasm,  of  "  the  vine-clad  islets." 

On  the  seventeenth  of  June,  the  canoeists  swiftly 
glided  on  the  bubbled  torrent,  through  the  flood- 
washed  delta  of  the  Wisconsin,  into  the  broad, 
sweeping  current  of  the  Mississippi,  at  this  point 
nearly  a  mile  in  width.  They  gazed  with  rapt- 
ure upon  one  of  the  noblest  scenes  in  America, 
and  Marquette  tells  of  the  devout  sentiments  which 


6o  DISCOVERY  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

possessed  their  hearts  when  they  had  at  last  found 
the  object  of  their  search,  after  thousands  of  miles 
of  arduous  journeying  through  a  savage-haunted 
wilderness. 

The  story  of  their  journey  southward,  as  far  as 
the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  is  well-known.  On  his 
return,  Joliet  lost  his  box  of  papers  at  the  foot  of 
the  La  Chine  rapids,  within  sight  of  the  Montreal 
settlement.  It  was  left  to  Marquette  to  publish  to 
the  world  a  report  of  this  remarkable  expedition, 
and  to  reap,  for  the  glory  of  his  order,  the  lion's 
share  of  fame.* 


*  The  Jesuit  Father,  though  merely  a  subordinate  in  the  expedition,  has  been  accorded 
by  most  writers  far  greater  credit  than  its  leader.  It  is  his  statue,  rather  than  Joliet's, 
which  the  Wisconsin  legislature  has  recently  voted  to  place  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington  ; 
and  while  Marquette  has  a  county  and  a  town  in  Wisconsin  named  in  his  honor,  Joliet  has 
not  even  been  remembered  in  the  list  of  cross-roads  post-offices.  Illinois  has  been  more  con- 
siderate of  historical  truth. 


CHAPTER    III. 


EXPLORERS    AND    FUR-TRADERS    OF    NEW    FRANCE. 


WM 

r 

Perrot!) 

^^^KW--^ 

Ojttn- 

^  toriufn- 

'Green 
vS&.y 

^^HR^^^/"-'-  - 

&B^w 

^^^  J  :-r-rrr^i. 

OLIET  and  Marquette 
had  returned  to 
Green  Bay,  from 
their  canoe  trip  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Ar- 
kansas, by  the  way  of 
the  IlHnois  River  and 
the  Chicago  portage. 
Thence  they  leis- 
urely made  their  prog- 
ress down  the  west  coast  of  Lake  Michigan  and 
were  at  St.  Francis  Xavier  mission  in  September. 
While  Joliet  hurried  on  to  Montreal  to  report  his 
memorable  discoveries,  his  Jesuit  companion  was 
forced  from  severe  illness  to  tarry  at  the  Bay  and 
later  in  the  year  to  forward  his  written  account  of 
the  expedition  through  the  apparently  uncertain 
agency  of  a  party  of  Ottawas  en  route  for  Three 
Rivers.  But  we  have  seen  that  Joliet's  oflficial  re- 
port never  reached  its  destination,  while  the  Indians 
succeeded  in  delivering  Marquette's  simple  narra- 
tive to  his  Jesuit  superior. 

6i 


62  EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS. 

While  the  worldly  Joliet  was  vainly  seeking 
authority  from  the  home  government  in  France,  to 
proceed  with  twenty  persons  to  the  Illinois  country 
and  there  establish  a  trading  post,  Marquette  was 
bent  on  saving  souls.  His  malady  grievously  op- 
pressed him  until  the  summer  of  1674.  In  October 
of  that  year  he  received  orders  from  his  superior  to 
undertake  the  task  he  had  so  earnestly  sought,  of 
establishing  a  mission  at  Kaskaskia,  among  the 
Illinois  Indians.  With  two  white  assistants  and  a 
number  of  Pottawatomies  and  Illinois,  the  Father 
proceeded  northward  down  the  eastern  shore  of 
Green  Bay  until  he  reached  the  deep  indentation 
now  know  as  Sturgeon  Bay. 

So  deep  is  this  incision  into  the  great  neck  of 
land  separating  the  waters  of  Green  Bay  and  Lake 
Michigan,  that  the  canoeists  penetrating  to  the 
head  of  Sturgeon  Bay  found  but  a  mile  and  a  half 
of  heavily-forested  sand-plain  stretching  southeast- 
ward between  them  and  the  waters  of  the  lake. 
What  was  then  a  peculiarly  favorable  portage,  sav- 
ing one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  stormy  passage 
throusfh  the  dreaded  "  Death's  Door,"  between 
Green  Bay  and  Chicago,  is  now  the  site  of  the 
Sturgeon  Bay  ship  canal,  one  of  the  most  useful  of 
Government  imi^rovcments  on  the  upper  lakes. 

Traversing  this  lonely  cut-off  through  the  dark 
pine  woods,  Marquette  again  set  his  canoes  afloat 


EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS.  d^) 

upon  the  green  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  and  made 
such  haste  as  November  windstorms  would  allow, 
along  the  dreary  shores  of  Eastern  Wisconsin.  Arriv- 
ing at  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  River  on  the  fourth 
of  December,  the  missionary  and  his  two  white  fol- 
lowers painfully  passed  the  winter  upon  a  wind- 
swept sand  dune.  In  the  spring  they  pushed  on  to 
the  Illinois  River,  but  the  shadow  of  death  was 
upon  the  devoted  zealot  and  he  hastened  back, 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  resolved 
to  die  at  Mackinaw  among  his  religious  brethren. 
The  good  man  passed  away  May  i8,  1675,  while 
still  upon  his  journey,  a  victim  to  exposure  and 
improper  nourishment;  quite  as  much  a  martyr  to 
the  faith  that  was  in  him  as  any  of  his  order  who 
were  roasted  by  the  Iroquois. 

Joliet  was  denied  the  privilege  of  reaping  mate- 
rial advantage  from  the  discovery  which  he  had 
made  for  Frontenac.  That  astute  official  was  inter- 
ested in  the  far-reaching  fur-trade  adventures  of 
Robert  Cavelier,  known  to  history  as  La  Salle,  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  characters  developed  dur- 
ing the  career  of  New  France. 

La  Salle's  appeals  to  the  court  for  permission  to 
explore  the  Mississippi  region  at  his  own  cost,  and 
recompense  himself  by  trade  with  the  Indians,  were 
backed  by  Frontenac  and  at  last  granted  in  May, 
1678.     La  Salle  had,  previous  to  this,  had    some 


64  EXPLORERS  AND  FUR-TRADERS. 

trade  with  the  upper  country  by  means  of  coureurs 
de  bois  sent  out  under  his  auspices.  And  it  has 
been  claimed  for  him  that  in  1671  he  went  in  person 
to  Green  Bay  and  coasted  the  west  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  as  far  south  as  the  Chicago  River ;  that 
he  portaged  to  the  Illinois  River  and  descended  the 
Mississippi  to  the  thirty-sixth  degree  of  latitude  two 
years  before  Joliet's  voyage.  But  this  claim  lacks 
the  support  of  proof. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  in  1673  Sieur  Raudin, 
the  engineer  who  planned  La  Salle's  fort  at  Fron- 
tenac,  now  Kingston,  on  Lake  Ontario,  went  to  the 
western  extremity  of  Lake  Superior  with  presents 
from  La  Salle  to  the  Chippewas  and  Sioux.  And 
in  the  summer  of  1679,  Daniel  Grayson  du  Lhut,* 
by  Count  Frontenac's  permission,  was  trading 
among  these  same  Sioux  in  the  Mille  Lac  region  of 
Minnesota.  Du  Lhut  was  a  hardy  soldier  of  fortune 
and  had  fought  in  some  desperate  European  cam- 
paigns. He  proved  himself  a  daring  explorer  and 
peculiarly  successful  in  his  treatment  of  the 
Indians.  Ascending  St.  Louis  River,  now  on  the 
dividing  line  between  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  it 
is  thought  that  he  made  the  easy  portage  to  Sandy 
Lake  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  and  thus  was, 
after  Radisson,  the  first  white  trader  upon  the 
head-waters  of    that    great    stream    so  soon    to  be 

•   F'or  wlioni  the  city  of   I>iiliilli,  Minn.,  was  named. 


EXPLORERS  AND   EUK-TRADERS.  65 

the  scene  of  active  operations  on  the  part  of  his 
contemporaries. 

That  same  summer  of  1679,  La  Salle's  small 
vessel,  the  Grif^n — the  first  sailing  craft  on  the 
Great  Lakes  above  the  cataract  of  Niagara  —  put 
in  its  appearance  among  the  islands  at  the  mouth 
of  Green  Bay,  much  to  the  amazement  of  the 
simple  Pottawatomies  who  were  there  domiciled. 
Here  La  Salle  found  a  party  of  his  traders  who, 
having  been  sent  in  advance  by  canoe  the  previous 
autumn,  had  accumulated  a  considerable  stock  of 
furs  from  the  Wisconsin  tribes.  The  Griffin,  being 
loaded  with  these  peltries  and  ordered  to  Niagara, 
was  never  again  seen  by  its  owner.  Some  Indians 
afterwards  reported  that  the  vessel  was  wrecked  ; 
but  La  Salle  heard  another  story,  and  perhaps  the 
most  likely,  to  the  effect  that  the  pilot,  who  was 
known  to  be  an  insubordinate  rascal,  was  with  four 
of  his  companions  afterwards  trading  on  the  Upper 
Mississippi  with  goods  stolen  from  the  ship. 

La  Salle  does  not  appear  to  have  visited  the  St. 
Francis  Xavier  mission,  still  in  progress  at  Depere, 
notwithstanding  his  proximity  to  that  spiritual 
abode.  And,  indeed,  this  lack  of  courtesy  was 
natural  on  his  part,  for  the  Jesuit  order  was  not 
friendly  to  his  cause  and  the  missionary  would  very 
likely  have  reported  him  at  Quebec;  for  in  pene- 
trating the  waters  of   Lake   Michigan,  he  had  ex- 


66  EXPLORERS  AND   EUR-TRADERS. 

ceeded  his  licensed  bounds  and  was  holding  an 
illicit  traffic. 

Upon  parting  with  his  ship,  with  instructions  to 
the  master  to  meet  him  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Michigan  on  the  return  trip,  La  Salle  and  four- 
teen of  his  men  had  proceeded  southward  in  four 
deeply-laden  canoes  along  the  Wisconsin  shore. 
The  island  in  Green  Bay,  on  which  the  party  had 
rendezvoused,  was  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
mainland,  and  the  navigators  were  about  midway 
when  what  was  a  glassy  flood  in  the  afternoon 
became  transformed  into  a  raging  sea.  They  were 
in  great  jeopardy,  but  kept  their  spirits  up  and  the 
fleet  united  by  shouting  to  each  other  through  the 
inky  night  until  at  last  they  reached  a  compara- 
tively quiet  cove  and  pitched  camp  under  the  dreary 
pines.  They  were  storni-bound  here  for  five  days, 
being  fed  by  the  neighboring  Pottawatomies  with 
Indian   corn   and   pumpkins. 

At  last  they  reembarked,  but  the  tempest  broke 
forth  again  and  this  time  they  took  refuge  upon  a 
barren  little  isle, spending  there  two  days  of  misery, 
washed  Ijy  the  spray  and  buffeted  by  the  gale. 
And  thus,  again  and  again,  did  treacherous  Sep- 
teml:)cr  str)rnis  interrupt  their  progress.  They  were 
s]ient  witli  hunger,  fatigue  and  exposure,  and  a 
niutiiioiis  s])irit  arosr  among  the  men;  lor  La  Salle 
now  (U-(  lined  to  allow  his  parly  to  stop  at  the  Indian 


EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS.  67 

villages  occasionally  seen  along  the  coast,  beino- 
fearful  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  his  follow- 
ers to  steal  the  merchandise  and  desert  to  the 
savages. 

On  the  first  of  October,  the  adventurers  were 
nearly  lost  while  attempting  to  land  their  frail 
barks  upon  a  sandy  beach  over  which  the  surf 
rolled  with  frightful  fury.  Many  were  capsized  and 
with  dif^culty  brought  to  land;  but  despite  the 
general  fatigue,  the  fear  of  famine  induced  La  Salle 
to  order  a  raid  upon  an  Indian  village,  from  which 
the  Pottawatomie  inhabitants  had  fled  at  the  ap- 
proach of  the  whites ;  and  here  a  considerable 
quantity  of  corn  was  confiscated,  goods  being  left 
behind  by  way  of  compensation. 

The  voyagers  were  in  a  desperate  strait  when  at 
length  they  entered  a  bay  which  was  apparently  that 
of  Milwaukee  River.  The  almost  ceaseless  storms 
had  greatly  protracted  the  journey  and  made  canoe- 
ing through  the  great  swells  a  labor  both  weari- 
some and  hazardous ;  the  landinor.s  each  nioht, 
through  the  breakers,  grew  more  and  more  diffi- 
cult and  the  banks  higher  and  more  cliff-like,  the 
farther  south  they  proceeded  ;  their  provisions  had 
at  last  become  restricted  to  a  handful  of  corn  each 
day,  per  man,  and  dejection,  sickness  and  exposure 
had   worn   them   to  a  pitiful   condition. 

On  the  forested  shores  of  this  beautiful  bay,  they 


6S  EXPLORERS  AND   EUR-TRADERS. 

were  startled  to  find  the  print  of  a  human  foot, 
where  they  had  anticipated  a  period  of  rest  in  an 
uninhabited  wild.  It  rained  heavily  all  that  night, 
but  the  white  camp  was  alert ;  and  well  it  was,  for 
a  party  of  Fox  Indians  approached  the  bivouac 
under  cover  of  the  bluff  and  startled  the  sentries 
before  dawn,  although  the  unwelcome  visitors 
withdrew  upon  discovery,  mumbling  the  excuse 
that  they  had  imagined  the  new  arrivals  to  be 
Iroquois.  The  red  men  stole  articles  from  under 
the  upturned  canoes  during  the  night.  La  Salle 
went  out  the  next  day  and  single-handed  captured 
a  young  Fox,  as  a  hostage  for  their  return.  A 
battle  was  imminent.  Sixscore  Indians  surrounded 
the  little  camp  with  loud  cries  of  vengeance,  but 
the  Frenchmen  finally  won  them  over  to  reason 
and  were  abundantly  recompensed  for  the  thefts  ; 
while,  in  accordance  with  Indian  custom,  per- 
petual amity  was  henceforth  promised. 

After  spending  a  brief  season  with  his  new- 
found friends,  La  Salle  proceeded  along-shore  to 
the  mouth  of  St.  Joseph's  River,  where  he  built  a 
fr)rt  anrl  on  the  third  of  December  started  upon 
that  notable  expedition  which  resulted  in  the  first 
civilized  occu):)ation  of  the  Illinois  country  —  at 
Fort  Creve(a'ur.  ( )ii  the  tweilty-ninth  of  Feb- 
ruary, i6So,  La  Salic  sent  Father  Louis  Hennepin, 
f)nc  of  three  Franciscan  friars  who  had  accomj)anicd 


EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS.  69 

him  upon  his  tour  from  Green  Bay,  together  with 
two  coureurs  de  bois,  Michel  Accau  and  Antoine 
Auguel,  upon  an  exploring  expedition  up  the  Mis- 
sissippi River.  Accau  was  the  leader  of  the  party, 
but  Hennepin  being  its  historian  generally  gets 
the  credit  for  its  explorations.  They  proceeded  in 
their  canoe  down  the  Illinois  River  to  its  mouth, 
and  thence  breasted  the  current  of  the  Father  of 
Waters  —  some  six  and  a  half  years  later  than 
Joliet.  They  took  especial  notice  of  the  Wisconsin 
and  Black  rivers.  Meeting  a  party  of  Sioux  going 
south  upon  a  scalping  expedition,  Accau  induced 
them  to  turn  back  on  their  path  and  take  them  to 
their  village,  where  a  considerable  trade  was  trans- 
acted, for  the  French  canoe  was  well  laden  with 
European  articles  used  in  forest  barter.  About 
three  miles  below  the  present  city  of  St.  Paul,  the 
canoes  were  hidden  in  the  reeds  and  an  overland 
journey  undertaken  to  the  Mille  Lacs  Sioux. 
From  here  the  adventurers  went  upon  a  buffalo 
hunt  with  a  party  of  their  entertainers,  below  St. 
Croix  River,  on  the  Wisconsin  side. 

And  now  to  return  to  that  daring  and  successful 
chief  of  cotireurs  de  bois,  Du  Lhut.  We  have  seen 
that  during  the  summer  of  1679,  he  was  trading 
with  the  Sioux  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Mille  Lacs  country.  The  succeeding 
winter,  he  spent  in  profitable  commerce  with  the 


70  EXPLORERS  AND   EUR-TRADERS. 

Assineboines,  Crees  and  other  northern  tribes  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Grand  Portage,  on  the  present 
dividins:  line  between  Minnesota  and  Canada.  In 
June,  1 680,  he  set  out  with  a  small  party  of  em- 
ployes to  reach  the  Mississippi  River,  probably  not 
being  aware  that  he  could  have  easily  reached  it 
from  the  Mille  Lacs  by  way  of  the  Rum  River. 
Coursing  the  extreme  southwestern  shore  of  Lake 
Superior,  he  entered  the  narrow  and  turbulent  Bois 
Brule,  in  our  day  perhaps  the  most  famous  of 
Wisconsin  trout  streams,  and  with  diflficulty  made 
his  way  over  the  fallen  trees  and  beaver  dams  which 
then  choked  its  course.  From  its  headwaters, 
there  is  a  short  portage  to  the  Upper  St.  Croix ; 
and  this  traversed,  Du  Lhut  was  upon  a  romantic 
stream  which  swiftly  carried  him  through  dashing 
rapids  and  deep,  cool  lakes,  into  the  mighty 
Mississippi. 

Here  he  was  surprised  by  the  information  that 
Europeans  were  hunting  with  the  Sioux  near  the 
mf)uth  of  the  Chippewa  River,  on  the  Wisconsin 
shore.  Pressing  forward,  he  soon  met  the  traders 
and  the  priest,  the  latter  being  an  old  acquaintance. 
The  Indians  had,  towards  the  last,  sadly  maltreated 
Henncj)in  and  his  companions,  robbing  them  of 
their  valuables  and  practically  making  them  prison- 
ers. The  arrival  of  the  fur  trader  was  therefore 
timely.      He   roundly  abused  the  savages  for  their 


EXPLORERS  AND  EUR-TRADERS.  7 1 

ill-treatment  of  his  friends  and  at  the  same  time 
sharply  reproved  the  friar  for  suffering  such  insults 
without  resentment.  Du  Lhut  and  the  others  now 
returned  with  the  Sioux  to  Mille  Lacs,  where  they 
were  handsomely  treated,  and  in  the  autumn  returned 
home  —  descending  Rum  River,  which  is  the  outlet 
of  Mille  Lacs ;  portaging  around  the  Falls  of  St. 
Anthony,  then  and  there  named  by  the  devout 
Hennepin ;  drifting  down  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Wisconsin  ;  ascending  the  Wisconsin  and  descend- 
ing the  Fox  amid  many  curious  adventures,  and 
spending  the  winter  at  Mackinaw.  Du  Lhut  made 
the  trip  over  the  Fox-Wisconsin  route  several  times 
in  later  years. 

An  adventurous  voyageur  named  La  Sueur  was 
the  next  man  to  imprint  his  name  on  the  page  of 
Wisconsin  history.  In  1683,  he  made  a  tour  with 
a  few  companions  over  the  now  familiar  Fox- 
Wisconsin  River  route,  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Mississippi,  and  ascended  to  the  Falls  of  St. 
Anthony  and  beyond,  where  he  traded  with  the 
Sioux. 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  early  adventures 
of  Nicholas  Perrot  in  Wisconsin,  and  the  part  he 
took  in  St.  Lusson's  expedition  to  Sault  Ste.  ALarie 
in  1670-71.  In  1685,  De  la  Barre,  who  had  succeeded 
Frontenac  as  governor  of  New  France,  appointed 
the  redoubtable  Perrot  "  commandant  of  the  West" 


72  EXPLORERS  AND   EUR-TRADERS. 

and  gave  him  an  army  of  twenty  men  to  hold  that 
vast  territory  in  subjection.  He  proceeded  to 
Green  Bay  in  as  much  state  as  was  practicable 
with  such  a  contingent,  and  found  at  St.  Francis 
Xavier  mission  Father  John  Enjalran  —  the  only 
priest  then  west  of  Lake  Michigan ;  for  the  Wis- 
consin Indians  had  proven  so  obdurate,  despite 
apparent  successes  in  the  early  years,  as  to  wholly 
discourage  the  Jesuits.  Enjalran  himself  was 
withdrawn  three  years  later,  no  attempt  being  made 
to  resuscitate  the  cause  at  Green  Bay,  until  a 
quarter  of  a  century  afterwards. 

At  Green  Bay,  Perrot  met  some  Indians  from 
the  West,  who  were  visiting  there,  and  they  told 
him  of  many  strange  things  —  of  the  brilliantly- 
colored  sandstones  of  the  Minnesota  country;  of 
white  men  riding  on  horses,  in  the  far  south  — 
doubtless  the  Spaniards  of  New  Mexico ;  and  of 
other  whites  in  the  far  north,  who  lived  in  houses 
that  "walked  on  the  water"  —  the  English,  who 
were  now  well-established  in  a  profitable  fur-trade 
on  Hudson's  Bay,  having  been  led  thither  in  1667 
by  our  okl  friends  Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  then 
in  the  service  of  the  i)ritish, 

Perrot  was  familiar  enough  with  the  Wisconsin 
country,  but  these  tales  were  fraught  with  fresh 
infoi-nialioii  to  him,  and  imbued  him  with  an  in- 
tense desire   to  at  once  seize    uj)on  the   treasures  of 


•(5 


SuT 


G) 


G) 


he  Grifjin. 


EXPLORERS  AND   EUR-TRADERS.  75 

the  West  and  establish  the  claims  of  the  French 
before  these  mysterious  whites  to  the  north  and 
south,  whoever  they  were,  had  penetrated  the 
interior  and  blocked  the  progress  of  New  France. 

At  the  portage  between  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin, 
Perrot's  party  had  some  difficulty  with  thirteen  Hu- 
rons,  who  were  opposed  to  his  project  of  establish- 
ing a  trade  with  their  enemies,  the  Sioux,  but  there 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  anything  worse  than  a 
wordy  quarrel.  Perrot's  Memoir  makes  no  men- 
tion of  a  post  established  either  on  the  banks  or 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  River  by  La 
Salle,  some  two  years  before ;  *  perhaps  it  was  no 
lonser  in  existence,  Buffalo  were  then  numerous 
along  this  noble  stream,  and  the  earliest  French 
traders  found  here  a  considerable  source  of  supply, 
in  the  coveted  pelts  of  these  animals. 

Upon  reaching  the  Mississippi,  Perrot  sent  out 
some  Winnebago  runners  to  notify  the  Sioux  that 
he  proposed  to  build  a  trading  post  some  distance 
up  the  river,  and  that  occasional  prairie  fires  would 
be  set  along  the  banks  to  serve  as  a  guide  for  the 
Indian  hunting  parties,  in  following  him.  The 
savages  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  region  had  by 
this  time  become  largely  dependent  upon  the  white 
traders  for  weapons,  ammunition,  domestic  utensils 
and  ornaments,  and  were  ever  anxious   to  welcome 

*  Margry,  V<iL  11.  p.  254, 


76  EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS. 

the  advent  of  a  French  trading  party  ;  although  the 
latter  were  obliged  to  fortify  themselves,  from  fear 
that  the  cupidity  of  their  wily  customers,  or  some 
strange  freak  of  suspicion  on  their  part,  might 
induce  treachery. 

During  the  winter  of  1685-86,  Perrot's  head- 
quarters were  a  rude  stockade  built  at  the  foot  of  a 
commanding  bluff  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, about  a  mile  above  the  modern  village  of 
Trempealeau ;  and  from  here  he  sent  out  his 
coureurs  de  bois  to  trade  with  the  Sioux  of  the  Min- 
nesota plains,  just  beyond  the  great  river.  What 
are  thought  to  be  the  ruins  of  these  winter  quar- 
ters of  Perrot  were  unearthed  in  the  fall  of  1887 
and  the  spring  and  summer  of  1SS8,  under  the 
direction  of  a  party  of  Wisconsin  and  Minne- 
sota antiquarians. 

Moving  up  stream,  in  the  spring  of  1686,  Perrot 
entered  Lake  Pepin,  now  far-famed  for  the  rugged 
beauty  of  its  shores,  and  upon  the  eastern,  or  W^is- 
consin  bank,  above  the  present  village  of  Pepin, 
erected  a  second  and  more  substantial  stockade, 
which  he  called  Fort  St.  Antoinc.  Perrot  appears 
to  have  been  commandant  of  the  West  until  about 
1699,  and  during  that  period  made  frec(uent  tri})s 
between  the  Upj^er  Mississipj)i  and  the  Lower  St. 
Lawrence.  Me  built  se\'eral  forts  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi, for  the  protection  of   his  fur  trade   and  the 


EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS.  jy 

lead-mining  industry  which  he  inaugurated  in  the 
Galena  country  ;  one  of  these  posts  was  Fort  St. 
Nicholas,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  — 
probably  on  the  site  of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  of  our 
day.  It  was  at  Fort  St.  Antoine,  on  the  eighth  of 
May,  1689,  that  Perrot  took  formal  possession,  in 
the  name  of  his  royal  master,  of  the  region  drained 
by  the  rivers  St.  Croix,  St.  Peter  and  the  Upper 
Mississippi  and  the  basin  of  the  Mille  Lacs.  These 
stockade  posts  erected  by  the  early  traders  were  as 
a  rule  placed  at  vantage  points,  such  as  a  strait,  a 
portage,  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  or  on  the  shores  of 
an  important  lake,  and  at  such  places  there  were 
quite  apt  to  be  Indian  villages. 

In  1802,  there  was  plowed  up  at  Depere,  on  the 
site  of  the  ancient  mission-house,  a  silver  soleil  or 
ostensorium,  made  to  contain  the  consecrated  wafer ; 
upon  the  rim  was  found  an  engraved  inscription,  in 
French :  "  This  soleil  was  given  by  Mr.  Nicholas 
Perrot,  to  the  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  at  La 
Baye  des  Puants,  *  1686."  The  soleil  is  still 
in  existence  and  was  exhibited  at  the  Marietta 
Centennial,  in  1888,  as  probably  the  oldest  exist- 
ing relic  of  the  European  conquest  west  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains. 


*  Baye  des  Puants  is  literally,  Bay  of  the  Stinkards,  sometimes  rendered  Bay  of  the  Fetid. 
It  refers  to  an  old  tradition  that  the  Winnebagoes  on  Green  Bay  came  from  where  the  water 
was  stinking  or  fetid  —  in  fact,  salt.  This  tradition  was  one  of  the  causes  which  led  Nicolet 
to  imajrine  the  Winnebasoes  to  have  come  from  the  China  Sea. 


78  EXPLORERS   AND   FUR-TRADERS. 

In  1703  there  was  published  in  France  a  remark- 
able work  in  two  volumes,  professing  to  be  the  ad- 
ventures in  America  of  Baron  la  Hontan,  a  well- 
educated  Gascon  who  had  come  to  Canada  in  1683 
and  by  ability  had  risen  from  the  post  of  a  common 
soldier  to  be  a  favorite  of  Frontenac,  and  in  after 
years  deputy  governor  of  Placentia.  In  this  journal 
La  Hontan  claims  to  have  arrived  at  Green  Bay 
in  the  fall  of  1689,  a  few  months  after  Perrot's  act 
of  taking  possession,  and  to  have  traveled  over  the 
Fox-Wisconsin  waterway  to  the  Mississippi,  into 
which  stream  he  entered  the  twenty-third  of  Octo- 
ber. He  save  a  marvelous  account  of  his  discov- 
eries  in  the  Upper  Mississippi  basin,  and  traced 
rivers  which  were  long  accepted  by  geographers. 
But  modem  scholarship  has  discarded  Hontan's 
narrative  as  largely,  if  not  wholly,  fabulous. 

Pierre  le  Sueur,  the  com^czic?''  dc  bois  whose  trip 
over  the  Fox-Wisconsin  route  in  1683  has  already 
been  alluded  to,  continued  for  many  yc^ars  to  be  a 
notable  character  in  the  Story  of  Wisconsin. 
Among  the  witnesses  to  Perrot's  act,  of  1689,  was 
this  same  Lc  Sueur,  then  a  considerable  trader 
among  the  Indians  of  the  Ujjper  Mississippi  coun- 
try. A  Canadian  by  birth,  and  related  to  men  of 
]jr()inineiu:e  in  the  councils  of  New  France,  he  was 
among  the  favored  few  who  were  granted  trading 
liccnst's  in  the  Northwest. 


EXPLORERS  AND  FUR-TRADERS.  79 

Toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Foxes,  who  then  controlled  the  valleys  of  the  Fox 
and  Wisconsin  rivers,  had  become  so  hostile  to  the 
French,  partly  through  cupidity  and  partly  through 
injuries  wrought  by  the  latter,  the  sense  of  which 
was  heightened  by  overtures  from  the  Dutch-En- 
glish traders  at  Albany,  that  these  divergent  streams 
were  no  longer  safe  as  a  gateway  from  the  Great 
Lakes  to  the  Great  River.  The  tendency  of  the 
prolonged  Fox  war  was  to  force  fur  trade  travel  to 
the  portages  of  Chicago  and  St.  Joseph's  on  the 
south,  and  those  of  Lake  Superior  on  the  north. 

It  was  with  a  view  to  keeping  open  one  of  the  north- 
ern routes,  the  approach  to  the  Mississippi  by  the 
way  of  the  Bois  Brule  and  St.  Croix  rivers,  that  Le 
Sueur  was  dispatched  by  the  authorities  of  New 
France,  in  1693.  He  built  a  stockaded  fort  at 
La  Pointe,  the  old  mission  site  on  Chequamegon 
Bay,  convenient  for  guarding  the  northern  approach 
to  this  route  ;  and  another  on  an  island  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi, below  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  and  near 
the  present  town  of  Red  Wing,  Minnesota.  This 
latter  post  soon  became  "  the  center  of  commerce 
for  the  Western  parts." 

Four  years  later  we  find  Le  Sueur  in  France,  a 
successful  suitor  for  a  license  to  operate  certain 
"mines  of  lead,  copper,  blue  and  green  earth," 
which  he  claimed  to  have  discovered  "  at  the  source 


So  EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS. 

of  the  Mississippi."  After  many  delays  he  set  out 
from  France  late  in  1699,  in  Iberville's  second  ex- 
pedition, having  in  his  charge  thirty  experienced 
miners.  His  reporter  and  companion,  Penicaut, 
says  that  in  their  voyage  up  the  river  in  the  summer 
of  1700,  they  found  lead  mines  on  the  sites  of  the 
modern  cities  of  Dubuque  and  Galena,  which 
Perrot  had  discovered  before  them  ;  and  supplied 
themselves  with  lead  from  what  came  to  be  after- 
wards known  as  "  Snake  diggings,"  near  the  pres- 
ent village  of  Potosi,  Wisconsin.  Le  Sueur  made 
note  of  the  Wisconsin,  Black,  Buffalo,  Chippewa 
and  St.  Croix,  all  of  them  Wisconsin  rivers,  and 
spent  the  winter  in  a  stockade  which  he  built  on 
Blue  River,  in  Minnesota.  He  traded  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  for  beaver  skins,  but  owing  to  the 
hostility  of  the  marauding  Foxes,  his  mining 
operations  were  confined  to  sending  four  thousand 
pounds  of  comparatively  valueless  blue  and  green 
earth  to  be  assayed  in  Paris. 

On  the  eighteenth  of  October,  1699,  Father  St. 
Cosmc,  a  native  of  Quebec,  arrived  at  Green  Bay 
on  his  way  to  the  Lower  Mississippi,  whither  he 
had  been  ordered  by  his  missionary  chief.  He 
found  upon  his  arrival  there  that  his  proposed 
route  by  way  of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  Rivers  was 
impracticable,  owing  to  tlic  opposition  of  the  Fox 
Indians,  "  who  will  not  suffer  any  person  to  pass,  for 


EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS.  8 1 

fear  they  will  go  to  places  at  war  with  them,"  and 
supply  their  enemies  the  Sioux  with  fire-arms.  He 
was  therefore  compelled  to  direct  his  boatmen  to 
proceed  southward,  closely  skirting  the  Wisconsin 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan — La  Salle's  old  route. 
On  their  way  they  stopped  at  a  small  Pottawatomie 
village,  possibly  the  site  of  Sheboygan,  "  where  Rev. 
Father  Marest  had  wintered  with  some  Frenchmen 
and  planted  a  cross."  The  seventh  of  October 
found  them  at  Milwaukee  Bay,  where  they  made  a 
brief  stay  and  found  a  considerable  population  of 
Mascoutins,  Foxes  and  Pottawatomies,  some  of 
the  same  people  who  had  annoyed  La  Salle's  unfor- 
tunate party  several  years  previous. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Foxes,  aided  at  times  by 
the  Mascoutins,  had  for  some  time  been  actinor 
badly  toward  the  French,  one  of  their  complaints 
being  that  the  latter  were  carrying  arms  to  the 
Sioux  ;  and  true  enough,  for  the  roving  fur-traders 
had  developed  an  extensive  custom  among  the 
savages  of  the  trans-Mississippi  country,  having 
already  pushed  as  far  west  as  the  Upper  Missouri; 
while  but  few  streams  of  importance  in  Wisconsin 
or  Minnesota  had  not  been  floating  the  canoes  and 
batteaux  of  coureurs  de  bois  for  many  years.  Im- 
mense sums  of  money  were  invested  in  these  en- 
terprises, the  coureurs  being  generally  but  the  agents 
—  the     commercial     travelers,     in     fact — of      rich 


82  EXPLORERS  AND   ELR-TRADERS. 

companies  of  merchants  quartered  on  the  Lower 
St.  Lawrence,  or  having  their  offices  in  France. 
The  risks  from  forest  fires,  accidents  en  route, 
the  cupidity  of  murderous  savages  and  the  treach- 
ery of  \\\^courcurs  themselves,  were  enormous;  but 
the  percentage  of  profits,  when  realized,  was  often 
reckoned  by  the  hundreds,  so  that  while  many 
failed  the  few  prospered  sufficiently  to  make  the 
risks  attractive,  and  the  woodsman  who  could  pro- 
cure a  government  license  to  trade  seldom  failed  to 
obtain  sufficient  financial  backing  for  his  venture. 

The  Fox-Wisconsin  route  from  Canada  to  the 
Mississippi,  while  farthest  from  Montreal,  was  the 
first  of  the  six*  great  portage  highways  between 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Great  River,  to  be  used  by 
the  French  ;  and,  from  the  opposition  of  the  Iro- 
quois, it  continued  to  be  long  preferred  by  many  to 
the  more  convenient  southern  portages.  When  the 
Fox  outbreak,  therefore,  shut  the  Wisconsin  gate 
in  the  face  of  the  French,  and  forced  them  to  use 
the  Chicago  and  Lake  Superior  routes,  much  hard- 
ship was  occasioned  to  the  most  imi)ortant  busi- 
ness interest  in  New  France. 

•  The  principal  routes  Ix-tween  tlie  C'ireat  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  were: 

1.  Hy  the  Miami  River  from  tlie  west  end  of  Lake  Erie  to  the  Wabasli ;  thence  to  the 
Oliio  and  tlie  Mississippi. 

2.  r.y  the  St.  Joseph's  River  to  the  \V.\1>,ish:   thence  to  tlie  Ohio. 

3.  I'.y  the  St.  Joseph's  River  to  tin-  K.iiik.ikee,  and  thence  to  the  Illinois  and  the 
Mississippi. 

4.  By  the  fhicaeo  River  to  the  Illinois. 

5.  Hy  (ireen  Hay,  I-'ox  River,  and  the  Wisconsin  River. 

6.  r>y  the  Ijois  Briile  River  to  the  St.  Croix  River. 


EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS.  83 

The  Foxes  in  the  principal  villages  on  the  Fox  and 
Wolf  rivers  had  been  profitably  employed,  as  were 
the  Menomonees  before  them,  in  helping  the  boats 
of  traders  and  explorers  over  the  numerous  rapids 
and  in  "  toting "  cargoes  over  the  portage  trails. 
Their  first  offense  consisted  in  collectino;  a  tariff  on 
goods  entering  their  country,  in  addition  to  their 
fees  as  common  carriers.  The  French,  unlike  some 
modern  political  economists,  deemed  a  tariff  to  be 
a  tax,  and  it  being  an  unauthorized  tax  resisted  it 
even  to  bloodshed.  And  thus,  with  complaints 
upon  both  sides,  the  trouble  grew  into  formidable 
dimensions. 

It  is  related,  that  in  the  winter  of  1706-07  a 
bold  French  captain,  Marin  by  name,  was  sent  out 
by  the  Quebec  government  to  chastise  the  rascally 
Foxes.  At  the  head  of  a  large  party  of  soldiers, 
coureurs  de  bois  and  half-breeds,  he  ascended  the 
frozen  surface  of  the  Lower  Fox  on  snow-shoes, 
surprised  the  enemy  who  had  assembled  near  the 
great  village  of  their  allies,  the  Sacs,  at  Winnebago 
Rapids,"  where  is  now  the  city  of  Neenah,  and 
slew  them  by  the  hundreds. 

Afterwards,  this  same  Marin  —  a  famous  par- 
tisan leader,  by  the  way,  who  died  in  1753,  while 
commander  of  Duquesne's  expedition  to  occupy 
the  Ohio  country  —  conducted  a  summer  foray 
against    the    persistent     Foxes.      His    boats    were 


84  EXPLORERS  AND  EUR-7'RADERS. 

filled  with  armed  men,  but  when  they  approached 
the  Indian  village  the  soldiers  were  covered  down 
with  oilcloth,  as  traders  were  wont  to  treat  their 
goods  en  voyage,  to  escape  a  wetting.  Only  two 
voyageiirs  were  now  visible  in  each  boat,  paddling 
and  steering.  Nearly  fifteen  hundred  dusky  tax- 
gatherers  were  discovered  squatting  on  the  strand  at 
the  foot  of  Winnebago  Rapids,  awaiting  the  arrival 
of  the  flotilla,  apparently  an  easy  prey.  The  canoes 
were  ranged  along  the  shore.  Upon  a  signal  be- 
ing given,  the  coverings  were  thrown  off  and  volley 
after  volley  of  hot  lead  poured  into  the  mob  of  un- 
suspecting savages,  a  swivel-gun  in  Marin's  boat 
aidine  in  the  slauohter.  Tradition  has  it  that  over 
a  thousand  Foxes  fell  in  that  brutal  assault. 

Still  they  were  not  vanquished.  In  171 2,  in 
company  with  the  Mascoutins,  they  advanced  to 
the  attack  of  Detroit;  their  attempts  were  futile, 
however,  and  they  retired  discomfited.  But  upon 
their  own  soil  their  depredations  on  the  fur-trade 
became  more  extended  than  ever  ;  and  so  wide  an 
area  did  they  range  over,  that  French  interests  in 
what  is  now  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  were  almost 
wholly  annihilated.  In  1716,  De  Louvigny, another 
captain  of  New  France,  is  reported  to  have  stormed 
the  audacious  Foxes.  Vax  from  being  extermi- 
nated by  ])revi{)us  forays,  five  hundred  warriors 
luul  three   thousand   s(|ua\vs  and    other  non-combat- 


EXPLORERS  AND   E UK-TRADERS.  85 

ants  are  alleged  to  have  been  collected  within  a 
palisaded  fort  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Winnebago  Rapids.  De  Louvigny  is  credited  with 
having  captured  the  fort  after  a  three  days'  siege, 
but  the  bluff  old  ranger  was  so  pleased  with  the 
pluck  and  endurance  of  his  enemy  that  he  granted 
him  the  honors  of  war. 

Twelve  years  later  the  Foxes  had  again  become 
so  troublesome  as  to  need  renewed  chastisement. 
This  time  the  agent  chosen  was  De  Lignery, 
among  whose  lieutenants  was  Charles  de  Langlade, 
a  fierce  partisan  whom  we  shall  meet  hereafter  in  the 
capacity  of  first  permanent  white  settler  in  Wiscon- 
sin.* But  the  redskins  had  become  wise,  after  their 
fashion,  and  fled  before  the  Frenchmen,  who  found 
the  villages  on  both  the  Lower  and  the  Upper  Fox 
deserted.  The  invaders  burned  every  wigwam  and 
cornfield  in  sight,  from  Green  Bay  to  the  portage. 
This  expedition  was  followed  by  others  —  notably 
one  under  De  Villiers  in  1730,  and  another  com- 
manded by  De  Noyelle  in  1735  —  until  the  Foxes, 
with  their  Sac  allies,  fled  the  valley  never  to  return. 

Some  time  between  1718  and  1721,  a  French 
military  station  was  established  at  Greeen  Bay 
and  styled  Fort  St.  Francis,  in  honor  of  the  former 
mission ;    and  in    July  of    the    latter   year,   F'ather 

*  Another  of  De  Lignery's  lieutenants  was  Beaujeu,  who  was  killed  while  leading  the 
French  troops  at  Braddock's  defeat,  in  1775. 


86  EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS. 

Charlevoix,  traveler  and  historian,  made  a  trip 
hither  from  Mackinaw,  in  company  with  M.  de 
Montigny  who  was  to  take  command  of  the  new 
post.  Five  years  later,  we  find  Fort  St.  Francis 
under  command  of  Sieur  Amoritan  ;  and  the  follow- 
ing year  (i  727),  the  Sieur  de  la  Pierriere  stopped 
here  and  made  a  successful  run  over  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  river  route  to  the  Upper  Mississippi, 
where  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Pepin  he  planted 
another  fort  for  the  protection  of  fur-traders  operat- 
ing in  the  Sioux  country.  This  new  post,  called 
Fort  Beauharnois,  was  planted  at  Pointe  au  Sable, 
on  the  Minnesota  shore,*  some  eight  or  ten  miles 
above  the  old  site  of  Perrot's  Fort  St.  Antoine,  and 
was  placed  in  command  of  Rene  de  Boucher, 
notorious  for  his  bloody  sack  of  Haverhill,  Mas- 
sachusetts. In  1728,  a  river  flood  destroyed  it, 
and  it  was  afterwards  rebuilt  on  a  higher  level. 
In  1766,  however,  Jonathan  Carver  found  here  but 
a  crumbling  ruin. 

The  very  same  year  that  high  water  washed  out 
Fort  Beauharnois,  De  Lignery  razed  the  fort  at 
(ireen  Bay,  from  fear  of  its  falling  an  easy  prey  to 
the  I'^oxes,  when  they  should  return  over  their 
smoking  fields  to  wreak  vengeance  uj)on  the  de- 
stroying race.  I>ut  two  years  afterward,  another 
military  stf)ckade  was   built,  this    time  on    the   west 

•  Two  miles  oast  of  llic  prcHtnl  railway  .stafion  of  I'Voiilcnac 


EXPLORERS   AND   ELR-TRADERS.  87 

side  of  the  Fox  River,  on  the  site  of  the  later  Fort 
Howard ;  and  until  the  fall  of  New  France  this 
proved  the  rallying  point  and  defense  of  a  floating 
French  Creole  and  half-breed  population,  engaged 
in  a  wide-spread  but  spasmodic  trade  with  the 
Wisconsin  aborigines. 

This  new  station,  s^iven  the  sfeneral  title  of  La 
Baye,  was  an  important  recruiting  post  for  the 
French  army  during  its  long  struggle  with  the 
British  forces  for  supremacy  on  the  Ohio  and  St. 
Lawrence.  It  was  here  that  Langlade,  Marin, 
Gautier  and  other  partisan  captains  assembled 
their  scalping  parties  of  naked  Menomonees,  Foxes, 
Sacs,  Winnebagoes,  Pottawatomies,  Ottawas,  Chip- 
pewas  and  Sioux,  to  assist  in  those  bloody  forays 
upon  the  western  borders  of  Pennsylvania  which 
sent  a  thrill  of  horror  throuQ^h  the  Enoflish  colonies. 
It  was  Langlade,  with  his  feathered  and  painted 
demi-demons  from  Wisconsin,  who  led  the  fright- 
ful onslaught,  that  fateful  ninth  of  July,  1755, 
when  Braddock's  army  was  sacrificed  to  the  te- 
merity of  its  commander  ;  Langlade's  Ottawas  were 
prominent  in  the  successful  siege  of  Fort  George, 
two  years  later;  while  Wisconsin  Indians  under 
his  command  did  effectual  service  before  Quebec 
and  frequently  harried  the  army  of  Wolfe  on  the 
Plains  of  Abraham. 

But   the    power   of    the    French    on    the    North 


88  EXPLORERS  AND   FUR-TRADERS. 

American  continent,  came  at  last  to  an  end.  The 
red  Indians  of  the  West  deserted  their  old-time 
allies,  when  the  latter  were  most  in  need  of  them  ; 
and  when,  on  the  eighth  of  September,  1760,  the 
banner  of  the  fleur-de-lis  was  lowered  in  New 
France  and  the  union  jack  floated  to  the  breeze, 
Wisconsin  savages  were  among  the  first  to  ap- 
plaud the  change. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


UNDER    THE    BRITISH    FLAG, 


^]T  was  with  no  small 
degree  of  exultation 
that  the  British  fur- 
traders  at  Albany  and 
on  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board, greeted  the 
announcement  that 
the  Northwest  was 
at  last  opened  to 
the  m.  Their  in- 
trigues with  Wisconsin  Indians  had  materially 
contributed  to  the  bitterness  of  the  Fox  war,  ham- 
pered the  operations  of  the  F'rench  and  proved 
profitable  for  themselves.  Indeed,  the  red  fur- 
hunters,  although  having  a  decided  preference  for 
the  French,  whose  mercurial  natures  were  so 
readily  adaptable  to  the  habits  of  the  barbarians  and 
to  whom  they  were  often  allied  by  ties  of  blood  as 
well  as  of  comradery,  were  quick  to  perceive  that 
the  English  traders,  with  all  their  lack  of  courtesy 
towards     the     natives     and     their     evident     greed, 

89 


90  UNDER    THE    BRITISH  FLAG. 

offered  the  best  prices  for  peltries.  English  over- 
tures for  trade  were  therefore  gladly  met  whenever 
opportunity  offered,  and  the  Indians  could  do  barter 
without  attracting  the  notice  of  their  French 
friends,  who  deemed  such  traffic  akin  to  treason- 
able   connivance   with    an    enemy. 

A  few  days  after  the  surrender  of  Canada,  Major 
Robert  Rosfers's   famous  ranoers — the   heroes   of 

O  O 

Lakes  George  and  Champlain  —  were  dispatched 
to  take  immediate  possession  of  the  important 
posts  of  Detroit,  Mackinaw,  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
Green  Bay  and  St.  Joseph's.  But  there  were 
numerous  delays,  and  the  French  commander  at 
Detroit  had  no  sooner  lowered  the  flag  of  France 
and  reluctantly  transferred  his  charge  to  the  plucky 
Rogers,  than  winter  closed  in  upon  this  advance 
guard  of  England,  and  the  upper  posts  were  un- 
disturbed until  the  following  year. 

The  first  of  October,  i  761.  Captain  Bel  four  of  the 
80th,  and  Lieutenant  James  Gorrell  of  the  60th,  or 
Royal  American  regiment,  set  out  from  INLackinaw 
with  a  detachment  selected  from  both  commands, 
to  take  possession  of  the  now  abandoned  French 
post  at  Cireen  I)ay.  They  arrived  on  the  twelfth 
of  the  montli.  and  found  the  i:)lace  temporarily 
deserted.  'XW  cstahlishnicnt  consisted  of  a  rotten, 
lumljle-dowii  stockade,  inclosing  a  num])er  of 
roofless     cabins     originally    designed    for     soldiers 


UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG.  9 1 

and  traders,  while  a  few  families  of  Menomonee 
Indians  had  their  wigwams  just  without  the  walls. 
The  savages  were  at  this  time  off  upon  their 
usual  winter's  hunt,  while  the  French  traders  were 
just  then  in  the  Sioux  country,  beyond  the 
Mississippi. 

Belfour  remained  two  days  at  Green  Bay ;  long 
enough  to  christen  this  dismal  outpost  with  the 
high-sounding  title  of  Fort  Edward  Augustus, 
and  then  returned  to  Mackinaw,  leaving  Gorrell 
with  one  sergeant,  a  corporal  and  fifteen  privates, 
to  hold  for  King  George  all  that  portion  of 
the  American  wilderness  lying  west  of  Lake 
Michigan. 

It  was  a  lonesome  winter  for  the  little  garrison 
at  Fort  Edward  Augustus.  Upon  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi,  eight  hundred  miles  of  canoe 
journey  to  the  southwest,  were  a  half-dozen  small 
French  villages,  with  a  floating  population  of  per- 
haps twenty-five  hundred  souls  ;  the  nearest  white 
settlement  was  the  meager  trading  hamlet  of 
Mackinaw,  two  hundred  and  forty  miles  away; 
while  between  Green  Bay  and  St.  Joseph's,*  the 
only  other  civilized  community  accessible  from 
Lake  Michicran,  there  lav  a  danoerous  water  route 
of  four  hundred  miles.  All  between  was  savagery. 
Here  and  there  a  wretched    Indian  community  had 

*The  site  of  the  mc^dern  city  of  Soiitli  F.end,  Ind. 


92  UNDER    THE    BRITISH  ELAG. 

its  conical  tepees  of  bark  and  matted  reeds  pitched 
on  the  shore  of  a  lake,  at  the  foot  of  some  portage 
trail  or  on  the  banks  of  a  forest  stream.  Hard  by 
were  their  fields  of  corn  and  pumpkins,  rudely 
cultivated  in  the  summer  time  by  women,  boys  and 
slaves — the  latter  generally  from  the  Pawnees 
and  other  tribes  to  the  south,  acquired  by  barter 
from  man-hunting  bands  which  annually  raided  the 
southern  belt  to  obtain  material  for  this  traf^c  in 
humanity. 

When  the  first  snowflakes  filled  the  air  and 
brittle  ice  along  the  shores  gave  warning  of  a 
speedy  close  of  navigation,  these  summer  habita- 
tions were  abandoned  and  the  Indians  scattered  in 
small  family  groups  through  far-away  hunting- 
grounds,  returning  only  in  April  or  May  to  make 
their  planting  for  another  season.  In  former  times, 
when  the  crop  was  in,  the  bucks  took  their  winter's 
stock  of  peltries  down  the  waterways  to  the  near- 
est fur-trader's  station  and  there  spent  a  few  weeks 
in  word)'  traffic  and  debauchery  :  at  first  to  Mon- 
treal, tlien  to  I-^ort  I-^rontenac,  then  to  Detroit  and 
Mackinaw  or  Green  l)ay,  St.  Joseph's,  or  some  of 
llic  old  ImcihIi  posts  on  the  llpper  Mississippi, 
willi  an  occasional  secret  trip  to  their  more  liberal 
patrons,  the  llritish  traders  at  Albany.  Hut  the 
])ost  traffic  gave  way,  at  last,  to  personal  visitation  on 
the  pait  of   (he  fracU'rs.      lu'ery  winter  the  hunting 


UNDER    THE   BRITISH  TLAG.  93 

bands  were  followed  throuizh  the  woods  and  alono- 
the  streams  by  traders  and  their  agents,  the  furs 
beino-  baro^ained  for  almost  before  the  animals 
which  wore  them  were  stiffened  in  death.  The 
natural  result  of  this  method,  which  lasted  unto  our 
own  day,  was  that  the  improvident  savages  spent 
their  gains  on  the  spot,  as  fast  as  acquired,  re- 
turning to  their  summer  homes  as  poor  as  when 
they  left  them,  and  absolutely  dependent  for  exist- 
ence on  the  miserable  crop  of  corn  until  the  fo]- 
lowing  winter.  The  life  of  our  Northwestern 
Indians  was  not  one  of  sweetness  and  light  ;  it 
yielded  no  material  for  romance.  The  squaws 
were  overworked  and  became  wrinkled  hags  and 
great-grandmothers  at  fifty  ;  the  bucks  were  gen- 
erally cruel,  immoral,  slothful  and  always  improvi- 
dent; filth  and  squalor  everywhere  prevailed, 
sanitary  laws  were  unknown,  and  between  the  ex- 
tremes of  gluttonly  excesses  and  prolonged  famine, 
the  Indian  fell  an  early  victim  to  disease.  The 
red  man  is  usually  depicted  as  silent  and  astute. 
He  was,  under  natural  conditions,  often  hilarious 
and  generally  unthinking  —  a  temper  well  fitting 
him  to  be  the  boon  companion  of  happy-go-lucky 
French  voyagcurs  and  coureurs  de  bois. 

And  thus,  while  Gorrell's  little  band  of  red-coats 
shivered  in  their  dilapidated  post  on  the  far-away 
marshes  of  Green  Bay,  the  gloomv  forest  wilds  be- 


94  UNDER    THE  BRITISH  FLAG. 

fore  them,  to  the  north,  to  the  south  and  to  the 
west,  harbored  hundreds  of  little  camps  of  savage 
hunters  and  demi-savage  traders,  wherein  the 
change  of  political  ownership  was  being  sharply 
discussed  and  the  attitude  of  Wisconsin  Indians 
determined. 

The  English  garrison  had  introduced  two  traders 
upon  the  scene  —  one  McKay  of  Albany,  and  one 
Goddard  from  Montreal  ;  but  they  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  at  first  successful  in  their  venture.  The 
winter  passed  in  repairing  the  fort  and  securing 
fuel,  with  no  small  difficulty,  from  the  distant  forest. 
Now  and  then  small  squads  of  Indians  came  strag- 
gling in  from  the  hunting  camps,  spies  sent  to  feel 
the  British  pulse ;  being  well  treated  they  invari- 
ably returned  to  the  woods  in  good  spirits  and 
helped  prepare  the  way  for  an  era  of  friendship, 
although  the  French  did  their  best  to  poison  the 
minds  of  their  dusky  friends  against  the  overtures 
of  Gorrell. 

In  the  spring,  when  the  bands  came  in,  verbal 
treaties  were  made  with  the  neighboring  Menom- 
onees,  Winncbagocs  and  Ottawas,  Gorrell  being 
forced  to  literally  "eat  dog"  with  his  Algonkin 
fiiciuls  and  school  himself  in  the  not  difficult  art 
of  forest  oratory.  Here,  as  at  their  other  wilder- 
ness outposts,  the  lin'tish  soon  won  the  respect  of 
the    huliaiis.      While     nrx'cr   intimately   associating 


UNDER    THE    BRITJ^H  FLAG.  95 

with  the  red  men  —  inclined  indeed  to  rather 
brusque  and  contemptuous  treatment  of  them,  in  a 
social  way  —  the  fastidious  English  made  up  with 
diplomacy  and  the  exercise  of  shrewd  business 
capacity  for  what  they  lost  in  failing  to  treat 
with  the  aborigines  on  an  equal  footing.  Fair 
words,  a  judicious  distribution  of  presents  and 
the  best  ruling  prices  for  furs,  captivated  the 
Indian  heart. 

The  episode  of  the  Pontiac  war  disturbed  these 
pleasant  relations  for  a  time,  but  when  the  savages 
of  the  Northwest  were  at  last  overawed  by  superior 
force  they  became  once  more  the  firm  and  lasting- 
friends  of  the  British.  The  latter  were  also  politic 
in  securing  the  adhesion  of  the  coiiretirs  de  bois 
and  other  French  and  half-breed  elements,  so 
closely  intermingled  with  the  Indian  life.  French- 
men and  mixed  bloods  were  freely  given  positions 
as  traders'  clerks,  interpreters  and  voyagcurs,  while 
military  commissions,  medals  and  uniforms  were 
issued  to  those  having  especial  influence  with  the 
Indians ;  thus  both  conquered  races  were  soon 
made  to  feel  that  the  change  in  political  mastery 
was  rather  to  their  advantao^e  than  otherwise.  This 
admirable  policy  of  the  British  government — so 
sharply  contrasted,  in  after  days,  with  that  lack  of 
conciliation  generally  shown  by  native  Americans 
in  their  treatment  of  the  savages  —  stood  Enq"land 


96  UNDER  *THE    BRITISH  FLAG. 

in  good  stead  in  the  Northwest,  during  the  wars  of 
the  Revolution  and  iS  12-15,  ^^  will  be  hereafter 
seen. 

It  was  not  until  the  tenth  of  February,  1763, 
that  France  formally  handed  over  to  England  her 
vast   territory  east   of    the    Mississippi   River. 

In  April,  partly  in  a  spirit  of  revenge  for  private 
wrongs,  partly  inspired  by  personal  ambition  and 
largely  by  patriotism,  Pontiac,  chief  of  the  Ottawas, 
commenced  to  organize  a  conspiracy  of  North- 
western Indians  for  the  overthrow  of  the  new 
British  garrisons. 

The  sad  story  of  the  massacre  at  Fort  Macki- 
naw, on  the  fourth  of  June,  is  a  familiar  one  in 
Western  annals.  Captain  Etherington,  Lieutenant 
Leslie  and  eleven  other  Englishmen  had  been 
saved  from  the  fort  by  friendly  Ottawas  and  taken 
in  canoes  to  L'Arbre  Croche.  On  the  eleventh, 
Etherinijton  sent  a  letter  bv  an  Ottawa  messeno^er 
to  Lieutenant  Gorrcll,  informing  him  of  the  tragedy 
and  commanding  him  to  evacuate  Green  Bay  and 
come  to  their  relief.  The  letter  arrived  at  Fort 
Edward  Augustus  on  the  fifteenth.  Gorrell  at 
once  assembled  a  council  of  Menomonees,  of  whose 
attachment  he  w^as  the  most  assured,  announced 
that  he  was  going  to  Mackinaw  to  restore  order 
and  asked  tlu'iu  to  take  care  of  the  fort  in  his 
absence.     Sacs,  I'\)xes  and    Wiiuiebagoes   then   ap- 


U.XDER    THE    BKJTISH   FLAG.  97 

peared  on  the  scene  in  considerable  numbers,  and 
all  were  at  once  loaded  with  presents. 

At  first  there  was  some  desire  upon  the  part  of 
the  Indians  to  prevent  the  departure  of  the  garrison, 
Pontiac's  emissaries  having  made  them  fearful  of 
the  consequence  of  offending  him.  But  at  this 
critical  juncture,  it  fortunately  happened  that  a  dele- 
gation of  Sioux  arrived  and  espoused  the  cause  of 
Gorrell.  Their  especial  enemies  the  Chippewas 
being  engaged  in  the  support  of  Pontiac,  the  Sioux 
proposed  to  help  the  English  and  threatened  dire 
punishment  to  those  who  dared  interfere  with  the 
commandant's  wishes. 

This  message  from  across  the  Mississippi  decided 
the  question  and  all  were  now  eager  to  assist  at  the 
embarkation.  On  the  twenty-first  of  June,  the  lit- 
tle fieet  paddled  out  of  P^ox  River  into  the  broad 
expanse  of  Green  Bay,  making  a  rather  imposing 
array,  for  the  garrison  batteaux  were  escorted  by 
canoes  containing  ninety  painted  warriors  gaily 
bedecked  with  feathers  and  sinQ:in2:  their  war-sonQ:s 
in  anticipation  of  greeting  the  foe.  They  had  a 
fair  passage  through  "  Death's  Door  "  and  across 
Lake  Michigan,  arriving  at  L'Arbre  Croche  on  the 
thirtieth.  After  many  councils  and  some  danger- 
ous delays,  the  united  garrisons  set  out  on  the 
eighteenth  of  July,  via  the  great  northern  route  of 
the  Ottawa  River,  for  Montreal,  which  they  reached 


gS  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FIAG. 

on  the  thirteenth  of  August.  Mackinaw  was  re- 
occupied  the  following  year,  but  the  British  flag 
was  not  again  seen  waving  over  a  Wisconsin  fort 
until  the  temporary  invasion  of  1814. 

The  sudden  departure  of  Gorrell  left  the  fur-trade 
at  Green  Bay  once  more  in  the  hands  of  the  French. 
The    Enoiish   traders   had  left    their    stocks    with 

O 

Creole  clerks,  and  very  soon  the  post  settled  down 
into  a  more  or  less  permanent  French  trading  vil- 
lage, the  precursor  of  the  Green  Ba) ,  Fort  Howard 
and  Depere  of  to-day.  Many  of  the  new-comers 
cultivated  small  plats  of  land  on  both  sides  of  Fox 
River  —  the  ribbon-like  strips  so  familiar  in  French- 
Canadian  cotes —  and  ever  since  that  day  the 
habitan  has  retained  his  foothold  upon  the  district 
and  indelibly  impressed  upon  it  his  well-marked 
characteristics. 

His  system  of  agriculture  was  of  the  simplest 
kind.  The  rude  wheeled  plows  were  of  wood 
throughout,  the  straight  beam  ending  in  a  cross- 
bar lashed  with  thongs  to  the  horns  of  oxen,  which 
were  then  more  commonly  used  than  horses. 
Often  a  crooked  stick  did  duty  as  a  colter.  The 
crops  were  chiefly  of  wheat  and  vegetables,  no 
more  being  raised  than  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  existence.  A  flower  garden  was  an  indispensable 
adjuiu  1  to  every  cabin,  which  was  a  crude  struct- 
ure, either  of   lugs   or   frame,  roofed   with   strips  of 


UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG.  99 

bark  or  thatched  with  straw,  and  everywhere  put 
together  with  wooden  pegs  in  default  of  nails. 
These  houses  were  small,  and  for  the  most  part  of 
but  one  story,  the  attic  lighted  by  a  profusion  of 
dormer  windows.  The  furnishings  were  slight, 
the  beds  being  the  chief  articles  of  furniture ;  the 
floors  were  covered  with  Indian  mats,  the  fireplaces 
were  ample,  neatness  everywhere  prevailed,  and 
the  general  aspect  was  one  of  rude  and  unpreten- 
tious comfort.  The  cattle  ranged  upon  the  com- 
mon ;  the  men,  in  their  moccasins  and  blanket 
suits,  met  and  roystered  in  the  inevitable  tavern,  in 
front  of  which  was  ever  a  row  of  little,  two-wheeled 
carts;  the  aproned  women  gossiped  over  the  picket 
fences  which  separated  the  narrow  holdings  —  nar- 
row, so  as  to  give  each  a  front  upon  the  river  high- 
way ;  everywhere  was  evident  the  French  desire 
for  social  intercourse,  the  love  of  aggregation,  the 
capacity  for  making  the  most  of  to-day  with  little 
regard  for  the  morrow. 

Just  as  the  reins  were  slipping  from  the  hands  of 
the  governor  of  New  France,  Vaudreuil,  that  pliant 
tool  of  his  friends,  made  a  grant  to  his  brother 
Rigaud,  of  the  Green  Bay  fort  and  an  extensive 
fur-producing  tract  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  embrac- 
ing a  goodly  portion  of  what  is  now  Wisconsin. 
This  Rigaud  was  an  arrant  rascal  ;  when  he  and 
Marin  were  in  control  of  affairs  at  Green  Bay,  they 


lOO 


UNDER    2 HE    BRITISH  FLAG. 


had  stolen  three  hundred  and  twelve  thousand 
francs  by  a  system  of  false  vouchers  and  misappro- 
priation of  Government  property  quite  general 
among  army  officers  throughout  New  France  at 
this  time.  Rigaud  sold  his  claim  to  one  William 
Grant,  who  was  financially  backed  by  a  number  of 
Enorlish  merchants  in  Canada.  But  the  London 
governm.ent  when  it  gained  control,  promptly  re- 
jected Grant's  claim,  which  was  never  after  heard 
of.  Thus  Green  Bay  was  left  to  its  own  resources, 
and  the  /labitans  were  fortunately  undisturbed  by 
proprietary  interference. 

Augustin  and  Charles  Michel  de  Langlade,  father 
and  son,  were  decidedly  the  most  picturesque 
characters  in  this  little  group  of  fur-trading  French- 
men, who  can  hardly  be  called  pioneers  as  we  of 
Anslo-Saxon  blood  understand  the  term,  and  the 
date  of  whose  advent  cannot  be  accurately  deter- 
mined—  for  they  were  essentially  rovers  and  some 
had,  like  Hood's  tars,  a  wife  and  progeny  in  every 
port.  The  Langlades  appear  to  have  been  among 
the  first  whites  to  call  Green  Bay  their  home, 
although  we  have  seen  that  other  P^rench  traders 
were  stationed  there  much  earlier;  it  is  believed, 
however,  that  these  latter  ke]U  tlieir  families  in 
Mackinaw  and  mcrciy  rcL^ardcd  themselves  as  tem- 
porary ocrnpanls  of  W^isconsin  soil.  Tlu'  Langlades 
—  the  elder  of  whom  had  owned  a  stockade  at  Green 


I 


UNDER    2'HE   BRITISH  FLAG.  lOl 

Bay  since  the  middle  of  the  century  —  reinoved 
their  domestic  establishment  thither  soon  after 
Gorrell's  departure,  and  may  therefore  be  deemed 
as  amona  the  fathers  of  the  settlement.  They  were 
extensive  fur-traders  and  commanded  the  confidence 
and  practical  control  of  large  bands  of  Wisconsin 
Indians.  Charles  had  become  especially  well- 
known  as  a  partisan  leader  in  the  conflicts  which 
resulted  in  the  downfall  of  New  France  —  having 
been  foremost  in  the  attack  on  Braddock  and  head- 
ing Wisconsin  Indians  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  — 
and  was  continued  by  the  British  in  the  position 
which  he  had  held  under  Vaudreuil,  of  superintend- 
ent of  Indians  and  militia  captain  for  the  district 
of  Green  Bay.  It  is  claimed  by  his  friendly  biog- 
raphers that  this  Langlade,  who  was  present  on 
the  occasion,  was  instrumental  in  saving"  Ethering- 
ton  and  other  whites  at  the  massacre  of  Mackinaw; 
but  the  historian  Parkman,  in  his  "  Conspiracy  of 
Pontiac,"  takes  the  view  that  Langlade  was  a  passive 
spectator  of  the  atrocities  on  that  occasion  and 
encouraged  the  Indians  by  merciless  indifference 
to  the  Englishmen's  appeals  for  his  protection. 

We  have  seen  that  La  Salle  established  a  post 
either  on  the  W^isconsin  River,  or  at  its  mouth, 
as  early  as  1683,  for  the  trade  in  buffalo  skins;  and 

that    Perrot  built  his   Fort   St.   Nicholas  near   the 

« 

mouth  of  the  same  stream.      Ikit  these  stations  fell 


Iu2  UNDER    THE   BRmSH  FLAG. 

into  disuse  either  before  or  during  the  prolonged 
difficulties  with  the  Foxes,  and  ceased  to  be  recoo-- 
nized  on  the  maps  of  the  period.  The  broad,  high 
prairie  lying  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  a 
mile  or  two  above  the  marshy  delta  of  the  Wisconsin, 
had,  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  European  con- 
quest, been  a  convenient  and  favorite  rendezvous  for 
Indians  and  traders. 

Here,  each  autumn,  the  traders  and  engages  on 
their  return  from  Mackinaw  or  the  lower  country, 
by  way  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin  route,  would  tarry  for 
awhile  and  often  hold  high  carnival  before  setting 
out  in  small  parties  for  either  the  Upper  or  the 
Lower  Mississippi,  or  for  the  country  of  the  Sioux. 
Here  again,  in  the  spring,  they  were  wont  to  as- 
semble after  the  winter's  hunt  and  make  up  their 
fleets  for  the  homeward  journey  ;  as  well  as  to  meet 
occasional  delegations  from  some  of  the  more  re- 
mote tribes  to  the  west  and  northwest,  bringing 
furs  with  them  for  disposal  to  the  whites.  Here 
innumcraljle  councils  were  held  witli  the  red  bar- 
barians of  the  forest  and  i)lain,  much  tobacco  and 
brandy  consumed  and  protracted  oratory  indulged 
in  ;  while  at  night  about  the  great  camp  fires 
stalked  and  lounged  sleek,  wily  savages  clad  in 
irav  and  irreasv  blankets,  and  swarthv,  devil-may- 
care  Creoles,  llicir  dress  a  curious  mixture  of 
French    and     Indian:    gaudy    mob-caps,    curiously- 


THK    I'tKlls    i)h     Ulli,    IKii.NllKK 


i 


UNDER    7'HE   BRITISH  FLAG.  105 

colored  neckcloths,  leather  shirts,  frino:ed  leireins 
and  moccasins  resplendent  in  the  quills  of  the 
"fretful  porcupine;"  a  motley  company  this,  but 
for  the  time  jolly  fellows  all,  cheek  by  jowl  —  the 
air  frequently  resounding  with  the  wild  cries  of 
the  medicine  dancers,  and  the  quavering,  metallic 
notes  of  the  voyageurs  as  they  chanted  in  minor 
key  their  quaint  melodies  :  rude  songs  of  the  voy- 
age, of  the  chase,  of  love  and  the  wassail. 

Thus  Prairie  du  Chien,  or  the  "  Prairie  of  the 
Dog" — so  called  from  Le  Chien,  a  village  chief 
who  long  made  this  prairie  his  summer  camping 
ground  —  became  quite  as  famous  as  Green  Bay 
itself.  But  it  was  not  until  1726  that  any  white 
person  is  known  to  have  claimed  Prairie  du  Chien 
as  his  home.  In  that  year,  one  Cardinell,  a  French 
soldier  who  had  served  in  one  of  the  raids  against 
the  Foxes,  settled  down  here  with  a  wife  whom  he 
brought  from  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence  —  possibly 
the  first  white  woman  to  settle  as  far  west  as  this. 
Cardinell  became  a  hunter,  but  in  the  summer 
cultivated  a  small  patch  of  ground  on  the  prairie, 
after  the  crude,  hap-hazard  fashion  of  the  habitaiis. 
His  wife  survived  him  and  lived  until  1827,  then 
accredited  with  being  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
of  age.  She  is  said  to  have  married  a  dozen  hus- 
bands in  succession,  after  Cardinell's  death,  no 
sooner  burving  the  old   love  than   taking  up  with  n 


lo6  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  EI  AG. 

new,  being  by  all  means  the  most  thrifty  widow 
who  figures  in  the  annals  of  Wisconsin. 

These  early  French  settlements  were  not  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  growth,  or  indeed  of  continuity. 
The  Cardinells  were  many  years  alone  on  the 
prairie.  By  1755,  there  were  not  more  than  half  a 
dozen  families  on  the  spot,  and  they  were  addicted 
to  rovine  after  the  Indian  fashion.  That  vear,  the 
o-overnmentof  New  France  re-established  its  old  post 
there  ;  but  eleven  years  later,  Jonathan  Carver  does 
not  appear  to  have  found  either  fort  or  white 
settlers  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin.  In  any 
event,  he  makes  no  mention  of  an  establishment 
there,  in  the  journal  of  his  tour. 

During  1764-65,  because  of  Indian  disturbances, 
traders  were  not  permitted  by  the  British  to  pro- 
ceed into  the  western  country  farther  than  Mack- 
inaw, nor  to  bring  furs  from  west  of  Lake  Michigan 
to  the  lower  country.  On  account  of  this  embargo 
on  commerce,  the  little  coterie  of  T^rench  traders 
at  Cireen  liay  oi)ened  negotiations  for  the  sale  of 
their  peltries  at  New  Orleans,  where  their  country- 
men had  arc|uired  a  strong  foothold.  But  these 
overtures  alarming  the  iMiglish  authorities,  the 
embargo  was  raised  and  once  more  Saxon  traders 
and  travelers  entered  the  region  of  Wisconsin  and 
the  Far  West. 

In   I  766,  (\ii)tain    [onalhan  C\'irv('r,  first  a  mcYlical 


UNDER    THE   BRErJSH  ELAG.  lO/ 

Student,  then  a  Massachusetts  militia  officer  during 
the  protracted  struggle  which  ended  in  the  fall 
of  New  France,  and  lastly  an  inveterate  traveler, 
conceived  the  notion  that  he  could  discover  a  north- 
west passage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  way  of  the 
Upper  Mississippi.  After  a  toilsome  journey  of 
some  fifteen  hundred  miles,  from  Boston  to  Green 
Bay,  which  he  reached  the  eighteenth  of  Septem- 
ber, he  ascended  the  Fox  and  descended  the  Wis- 
consin, thence  proceeding  by  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony  and  the  adjacent  country. 
Afterwards  ascending  the  Minnesota  River,  he 
wintered  with  the  Sioux  of  the  plains  and  the  fol- 
lowing spring  reached  Lake  Superior  by  way  of  the 
Chippewa  and  St.  Croix  Rivers,  from  whence  he 
was  obliged  to  return  home  disappointed  in  his 
ambitious  expectations,  but  nevertheless  having 
made  a  remarkable  tour,  the  details  of  which  he 
gave  to  the  world  in  a  book  of  travels  which  was 
an  important  contribution  to  the  geographical 
literature  of  his  time. 

Not  far  north  from  the  site  of  the  modern  city 
of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  Carver  found  a  remarkable 
sandstone  cave,  which  was  used  as  a  council  cham- 
ber by  some  of  the  neighboring  Indian  bands.  He 
claimed  to  have  attended  such  a  council  on  the 
first  of  May,  1767,  and  to  have  been  the  recipient 
of  a   considerable    orant  of   land   at    the   hands   of 


lo8  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG. 

his  generous  Sioux  hosts.  This  tract,  as  described 
in  the  deed  signed  by  the  granting  chiefs,  included 
the  sites  of  the  present  cities  of  St.  Paul  and 
Minneapolis,  some  of  the  choicest  lands  in  Minne- 
sota and  the  whole  or  portions  of  the  counties  of 
Pierce,  Pepin,  Dunn,  Clark,  Buffalo,  Trempealeau, 
Jackson,  Chippewa,  Eau  Claire,  Polk,  Barron,  Tay- 
lor, Price  and  Marathon  in  Wisconsin.  The  claim 
was  transferred  to  others  by  Carver's  children,  for 
the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  and  in 
1822  the  Mississippi  Land  Company  was  organized 
in  New  York  for  its  prosecution  before  Congress. 
That  body,  after  an  elaborate  investigation,  decided 
against  the  petitioners  ;  but  long  after  the  decision, 
lands  under  the  Carver  title  were  sold  in  Wiscon- 
sin and  Minnesota  by  Eastern  speculators,  and  frau- 
dulent deeds  of  this  character  are  to-day  on  record 
at  St.  Paul  and  Prairie  du  Chien. 

During  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  Wisconsin 
was  chiefly  notable  as  a  recruiting  ground  for 
Indian  allies  for  the  P)rilish  army.  Charles  Michel 
de  Langlade  and  his  half-nephew,  Charles  Gautier 
de  Verville,  were  constantly  employed  in  this  work 
by  the  commandant  at  Mackinaw  and  were  as  suc- 
cessful as  could  be  hoped  for  among  a  vacillating- 
people,  who  \\(  I'c  alwa\s  hanging  back  for  lai-ger 
rewards,  and  re(|uire(l  ])ersistent  coaxing  and  not 
infre(|uenl   thi'eats. 


UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG.  I09 

The  country  north  of  the  Ohio  River  was  claimed 
by  the  British  as  a  part  of  the  province  of  Quebec, 
but  Virginia  also  laid  claim  to  it.  This  vast 
region,  styled  the  Northwest,  contained  among 
others  three  rude  stockade  forts —  Kaskaskia  and 
Cahokia  in  what  is  now  Illinois,  and  Vincennes,  in 
the  present  Indiana  —  which  were  in  themselves 
the  keys  to  the  situation.  The  British  held  these 
places,  but  not  with  sufificient  garrisons.  So  long 
as  Indian  scalping  parties  could  be  raised  north  of 
the  river  and  let  loose  upon  the  settlers  who  were 
just  then  pouring  into  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
not  only  was  the  further  colonization  of  the  South- 
west impracticable,  but  the  British  were  given  an 
opportunity  to  harass  the  southern  coast  settle- 
ments through   their    back  door. 

In  1778,  therefore.  General  George  Rogers  Clark, 
with  the  authority  of  Virginia,  advanced  into  the 
Northwest  with  a  little  army  of  Kentuckians ;  and, 
as  the  result  of  a  series  of  remarkable  exploits, 
which  figure  among  the  most  romantic  incidents  in 
American  history,  seized  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and 
Vincennes  and  held  the  disputed  territory  for  the 
United  States  till  the  close  of  the  War.  From 
his  headquarters  at  Kaskaskia,  he  sent  active 
emissaries  among  the  Wisconsin  Indians  and  in- 
tensified among  them  the  prevalent  feeling  of 
doubt,  besides  winnino;  over  several    Fox  and  Win- 


no  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG. 

nebago  chiefs  to  at  least  a  position  of  neutrality. 
Indeed  Godefroy  Linctot,  a  trader  of  some  impor- 
tance at  Prairie  du  Chien,  forsook  the  British 
cause  in  the  spring  of  1779  and  yielded  so  far  to 
Clark's  advances  as  to  openly  side  with  the  Amer- 
icans and  lead  a  picturesque  company  of  four  or 
five  hundred  French  and  half-breed  horsemen  in  sev- 
eral important  expeditions  connected  with  Clark's 
movements  in  the  West. 

It  was  in  October,  1777,  that  Gautier  started 
from  Montreal  upon  his  first  recruiting  expedition 
through  Wisconsin.  He  proceeded  by  way  of  the 
Fox  River,  across  country  to  the  Rock  River  and 
thence  northwesterly  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  talking 
with  traders  and  Indian  delegations  at  Green  Bay 
and  several  points  en  route,  and  sending  runners 
with  war  belts  and  presents  to  outlying  bands. 
One  of  these  overtures  was  directed  to  "  Milwaki,"  * 
where  a  French  trader  was  stationed  in  the  midst 
of  a  polyglot  village  clustered  about  the  nK)uth  of 
the  river  and  on  the  bluffs  o\'erlooking  Lake  Michi- 
gan. iM-om  I'rairic  du  Chien,  where  he  met  a 
trader  whom,  in  his  official  rei:)ort  to  General  Guy 
Carleton  he  styles  .Sieur  Lise,  he  sent  out  run- 
ners among  the  Sioux. 

I  le  found  that  "  the  I)()slonniens,"  as  he  calls  the 
Americans,  had  ])rece(le(l  him    among   some  of  the 

«  Mllwnnkre. 


UNDER    7  HE    ER/E/S/I  EL  AG.  Ill 

tribes,  and  that  there  was  much  disaffection  in  con- 
sequence ;  although  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Louis 
had  taken  care  to  inform  the  Indians  that  the 
Americans  had  "  Venimous  and  empoisoned 
Mouths,"  and  must  not  be  heeded.  Gautier  was, 
however,  enabled  to  gather  up  two  hundred  and 
ten  Sioux,  Sac,  Fox  and  Winnebago  warriors  and 
their  families  and  deliver  them  in  June,  1778,  to 
the  Indian  agent,  Langlade,  as  pledged  to  aid  the 
British. 

These  allies  were  sent  on  to  Detroit  and  were  a 
part  of  the  hybrid  expedition  under  Colonel  Henry 
Hamilton,  which  recaptured  Vincennes  in  Decem- 
ber following,  from  the  captain  and  one  private 
whom   Clark  had   left    there  as  a  winter    oarrison. 

O 

The  gallant  American,  however,  soon  won  back  the 
fort  and  sent  Hamilton  as  a  prisoner  to  Virginia. 

We  find  Langlade  and  Gautier  frequently  in 
Wisconsin  on  similar  errands,  throuorhout  the  con- 
tinuance  of  the  war.  One  notable  Indian  expedition 
led  by  Gautier,  under  orders  from  Major  De  Pey- 
ster,  then  in  command  at  Mackinaw,  was  a  raid  in 
the  summer  of  1779  upon  Le  Pe,  an  important 
French  fur-trading  station  within  the  present  city 
limits  of  Peoria,  Illinois.  It  was  feared  that  the 
rude  stockade  there  might  become  a  harbor  for  the 
Americans,  and  it  was  consequently  burned  by 
Gautier,  who    thereu])on    beat  a   hasty    retreat,  for 


112  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  ELAG. 

Clark's  influence  had  now  well  permeated  the 
Illinois  country,  and  "  rebels  "  were  becoming  un- 
comfortably numerous  both  among  Indians  and 
traders. 

Early  in  1780  news  was  received  at  Detroit  and 
Mackinaw  of  Spain's  declaration  of  war  against 
Great  Britain.  The  western  commandants  were 
notified  by  General  Haldimand,  governor  of  Canada, 
that  an  English  fleet  and  army  under  General 
Campbell,  were  to  ascend  the  Mississippi  to  attack 
New  Orleans  and  other  Spanish  river  communities, 
and  that  it  was  advisable  that  an  expedition  pro- 
ceed southward  by  the  river  to  co-operate  with 
Campbell's.  The  Spanish  were  at  the  same  time 
threatening  Natchez  and  other  English  settlements 
on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi. 

A  small  detachment  of  troops,  with  the  neces- 
sary half-breed  interpreters,  was  sent  among  the 
Sioux  west  and  southwest  of  Lake  Superior,  with 
the  effect  of  inducing  Chief  Wabashaw  to  collect 
several  hundred  warriors  of  that  nation  for  the 
proposed  expedition.  This  party  was  met  at 
Prairie  du  Chien  by  the  iM'cnch  traders  Hesse, 
Du  Charnie  and  Calve,  and  the  interpreters  Rocque 
and  Key.  These  men  were  in  command  of  a 
motley  throng  of  Indians,  chiefly  made  up  of 
Menomonees,  Winnebagoes,  Sacs  and  i"\)xes  who 
h;u]     been     rciidc/A'ouscd      at     the      lN)x-\\'is(M)nsin 


UNDER    7HK   BRIIISH   FLAG.  II3 

portage  by  Hesse,  and  a  contingent  of  Chippewas 
under  Chief  Matchekewis,  who  had  been  a  promi- 
nent character  in  the   Mackinaw  massacre  of   1763. 

The  combined  forces,  now  numbering  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  whites,  mixed-bloods  and  red- 
skins, moved  slowly  down  the  river  towards  St. 
Louis,  the  first  object  of  the  proposed  attack.  Off 
the  mouth  of  Turkey  River  they  met  and  captured 
a  barge-load  of  provisions  in  charge  of  an  Amer- 
ican trader  and  a  Creole  crew.  The  prisoners  were 
at  once  sent  north,  by  way  of  the  Fox  and  Wis- 
consin, to  Mackinaw,  while  the  goods  were  appro- 
priated to  the  commissariat  of  the  expedition.  On 
the  twenty-sixth  of  May  the  outlying  cabins  of  St. 
Louis  were  raided,  and  about  a  dozen  persons  shot 
and  scalped  by  the  screeching  savages,  who  were 
soon  driven  off  by  the  neighboring  inhabitants. 
A  small  detached  band  of  Indians  crossed  the  river 
and  looted  the  outskirts  of  Cahokia,  on  thelllinois 
bank,  but  otherwise  the  foray  was  a  dismal  failure,  the 
frightened  marauders  flying  in  squads  to  Chicago 
and  Prairie  du  Chien  and  there  quickly  disbanding. 

The  British  officials,  who  had  engaged  Langlade 
to  descend  the  Illinois  by  way  of  the  Chicago  por- 
tage and  unite  his  forces  with  those  of  the  invaders, 
thought  the  attack  on  St.  Louis  altogether  too  pre- 
cipitate, as  it  was  made  before  Langlade's  appear- 
ance   on    the    scene,  and    bitterly  accused    Hesse, 


I  14  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  EL  AG. 

Du  Charme  and  Calve  with  bald-faced  treachery. 
And  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  this  thrifty- 
trio  were  but  faint-hearted  partisans,  ready  to  sell 
their  influence  to  the  highest  bidder,  or  to  both, 
and  chiefly  anxious  to  be  at  the  close  of  the  war 
on  friendly  terms  with  the  victors,  whoever  they 
miirht  be. 

Indeed,  this  was  the  attitude  of  most  of  the  French 
traders  in  the  Northwest,  who  in  this  respect 
were  quite  like  the  Indians  themselves.  For 
nearly  a  century  a  bone  of  contention  between 
conflictins:  races,  it  mattered  but  little  to  them  who 
were  their  political  owners  so  long  as  they  were  to 
have  any.  They  prudently  affected  friendship  for 
those  in  immediate  control  of  their  territory  and 
trade,  be  the  latter  French,  English,  Spanish  or 
American  ;  but  experience  had  led  them  to  value 
the  importance  of  cultivating  the  good  graces 
of  the  enemy,  who  might  by  some  sudden  turn 
of  fortune  become  their  masters.  Hence  we  find 
these  simple  but  wily  Indians,  traders,  cotireurs 
cie  bois,  voyageurs  and  liabitans  constantly  })laying 
double,  often  waging  a  sly  guerrilla  warfare  upon 
bf)th  })arties  to  the  fray,  selling  themselves  to  who- 
ever would  buy  and  making  pi-oniises  not  intended 
to  be  fulfilled.  (Generally,  it  was  not  until  the  out- 
come .seemed  well  determined,  that  these  people 
took  sides  defmitelv;   thus  we  see  the  ranks   of   the 


UNDER    THE   BRITISH  EI. AG.  II5 

western  forest  allies  of  either  the  Americans  or  the 
British,  swelling  or  depleting  just  as  the  quality  of 
the  war  news  was  hopeful  or  depressing.  This  un- 
certainty of  savage  or  demi-savage  support,  has 
ever  been  a  feature  of  American  frontier  wars,  the 
side  the  most  dependent  upon  Indian  support 
having  invariably  lost  in  the  long  run.  And  this 
was  the  position  of  the  British  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  in  the  Northwest. 

The  British  navy  upon  the  upper  lakes,  in  this 
period,  was  chiefly  available  for  the  transport  of 
troops  and  stores.  This  division  of  the  "  upper 
lakes "  included  Lake  Erie,  whereon  were  em- 
ployed some  half-dozen  small  craft.  The  sloops 
Welcome,  Felicity  and  Archangel  appear  to  have 
been  the  only  vessels  operating  on  Lake  Michi- 
gan, transportation  on  Lake  Superior  apparently 
being  restricted  to  traders'  bateaux. 

An  interesting  voyage  was  undertaken  on  Lake 
Michigan,  in  1779,  by  Samuel  Robertson,  master  of 
the  Felicity.  Robertson  made  the  circuit  of  the 
lake,  between  October  21st  and  November  5th,  en- 
countering exceptionally  stormy  weather.  Traders, 
and  Indians  were  visited  and  supplied  at  the  mouths 
of  Michigan,  Kalamazoo  and  Grand  rivers,  on  the 
Michigan  shore.  Milwaukee  Bay  was  reached  the 
third  of  November,  and  here  Robertson  found  a 
French  trader  whom  he  calls  "  Morong." 


Il6  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG. 

This  man,  who  professed  a  warm  attachment  for 
His  Britannic  Majesty,  was  given  a  quantity  of 
presents  and  stores  for  the  neighboring  Indians; 
and  from  him  information  was  receiv^ed  of  another 
French  trader,  named  Fay,  located  at  Two  Rivers, 
some  fifty  miles  north  of  Milwaukee,  on  the  lake 
shore.  Robertson  has  left  us  his  log  of  the  voy- 
age,* a  curious  specimen  of  English  composition, 
as  witness  the  following  paragraph  from  his  ex- 
perience at  "  Millwakey  :  " 

"  Mr.  Gautley  gives  them  [Morong  and  chief 
Lodegard]  a  present  3  bottles  of  Rum  &  half 
carrot  of  Tobaco,  and  also  told  them  the  manner 
governor  Sinclair  could  wish  them  to  Behave,  at 
which  they  seemd  weall  satisfeyed,  he  also  gave 
instructions  Monsieur  St.  Pier  to  Deliver  some 
strings  of  Wampum  and  a  little  Keg  of  rum  to  the 
following  &  ^  carrot  of  Tobaco  in  sjovernor  Sin- 
clairs  name;  likewise  the  manour  how  to  behave; 
he  also  gave  another  small  Kegg  with  some  strings 
of  Wampum  with  a  carrot  of  Tobaco  to  Deliver 
the  indeans  at  Millwakey  which  is  a  mixed  Tribe 
of  different  nations." 

y\n  Fnglish  trader  named  John  Long  arrived  at 
the  little  JM-cnch  and  Indian  hamlet  of  Green  Bay 
in  June,  i  y.So,  en  i-outc  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  where 
Pangladc,  in  anticipation    of  his  coming,  iiad  accu- 

•  Wisconsin  llistoritii)  Cnllcctioiis,  Vul.  XI.  pp.  203-12. 


UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG.  liy 

mulated  a  quantity  of  furs  ;  for  that  active  partisan's 
mission  among  the  Wisconsin  Indians  had  some- 
thing of  a  commercial  as  well  as  of  a  military  char- 
acter. Long  spent  some  days  at  Green  Bay  and 
tells  us  in  his  gossipy  journal  that  the  houses  of 
both  races  there  were  covered  with  birch-bark  while 
the  rooms  were  decorated  with  bows  and  arrows 
and  more  modern  weapons.  He  obtained  from  the 
people,  without  difficulty,  an  abundant  supply  of 
deer  and  bear  meat,  and  Indian  corn,  besides  melons 
and  fruit.  The  settlement  at  this  time  did  not 
contain  much  more  than  fifty  whites,  old  and  young, 
divided  into  six  or  seven  families.  The  men,  for 
the  most  part,  were  engaged  as  assistants  or  engages 
to  the  two  or  three  traders;  their  winters  were 
speiit  in  the  woods,  while  in  summer  they  listlessly 
cultivated  their  small  gardens,  leading  a  narrow 
existence  in  which  seasons  of  arduous  labor  en 
voyage  2i\X.e.rn2iiQd  with  periods  of  sloth  and  thought- 
less merriment. 

In  1 78 1,  Captain  Patrick  Sinclair,  then  the  Eng- 
glish  lieutenant-governor  for  the  Mackinaw  district, 
in  which  was  included  the  country  west  of  Lake 
Michigan,  held  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  at  which 
he  individually  purchased  from  them  the  island  of 
Mackinaw  and  the  settlements  of  Green  Bay  and 
Prairie  du  Chien,  with  all  intervening  territory. 
But  the  Revolutionary  War  closed  with  the  follow- 


Il8  UNDER    THE   BRITISH  FLAG.     ' 

ing  year  and  the  entire  Northwest,  under  the  defini- 
tive treaty  of  peace  in  1783,  was,  regardless  of  all 
private  claims,  apportioned  to  the  United  States, 
having  been  fairly  won  with  the  sword  by  George 
Rogers  Clark  and  kept  for  our  inheritance  by  the 
shrewd  diplomacy  of  Franklin,  Adams  and  Jay. 


CHAPTER    V. 


ENGLISH    DOMINATION    CONTINUED. 


ET  US  briefly  recapitu- 
late the  changes  in 
political  mastery. 
The  region  of  which 
Wisconsin  was  a  part, 
was  Indian  country, 
undisturbed  by  white 
intrusion,  until  Nico- 
let's  discovery,  in 
1634.  What  the 
French  call  "  the  Conquest  "  may  be  said  to  date 
from  that  year.  In  1671,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
Saint-Lusson  formally  took  possession  of  the  North- 
west for  France.  The  French  surrendered  their 
claims  to  England,  in  the  treaty  of  February,  1763. 
On  the  seventh  of  October,  that  year,  the  king  of 
England  divided  the  greater  part  of  his  new  pos- 
sessions on  the  American  mainland  into  the  three 
governments  of  Quebec,  East  Florida  and  West 
Florida  —  but  the  Northwest  not  being  included  in 

any  of  these  districts  was  presumed   to  be  left  as 

119 


I20         ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

the  property  of  the  coast  colonies.  In  1774,  prob- 
ably with  the  purpose  of  hemming  in  the  restless 
colonists  to  the  Atlantic  slope  and  thus  preventing 
them  from  spreading  westward  of  the  Alleghanies 
and  becoming  a  powerful  people,  Parliament  passed 
what  is  known  in  history  as  the  Quebec  Act.  This 
act  attached  the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  and 
west  of  Pennsylvania  —  the  Northwest  Territory 
of  later  days  —  to  the  province  of  Quebec  and  prac- 
tically placed  its  people  under  French  law  and 
Roman  Catholic  supervision.  What  is  now  Wis- 
consin was  of  course  included  in  the  region  affected 
by  the  bill.  The  measure  was  not  passed  without 
sharp  and  protracted  opposition  in  Parliament,  and 
in  America  created  such  a  storm  of  indignation  as 
to  be  among  the  many  causes  which  precipitated 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  two  years  later. 
Thus  the  Quebec  Act,  so  far  as  the  Northwest  was 
concerned,  was  on  account  of  the  American  up- 
rising practically  a  dead-letter  statute  from  the 
start.  We  have  seen  that  under  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  England,  in  1783,  the  Northwest  was  conceded 
to  tlie  United  States,  England  recognizing  the 
Orcat  Lakes  as  the  international  boundary. 

1)111  the  change;  in  proprietorship  was  merely 
nominal,  (ireat  I)ritain  still  held  her  posts  in  the 
Nort invest,  on  the  ground  that  certain  stipulations 
in  llie  ti<'.'it\'  of   peace  had  not  Ijeen  fulfilled  by  the 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.  121 

United  States.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  was  not  over  when  the  treaty  of  1783 
was  signed.  Great  Britain,  for  eleven  years  after 
this,  was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  still  waging 
war  with  Indian  cat's-paws  upon  our  trans- Alleghany 
region  and  eagerly  contemplating  the  day  when 
she  could  once  more  annex  the  coveted  Northwest 
to  the  Province  of  Quebec. 

In  1787,  the  United  States  Congress  adopted  an 
ordinance  rearing  the  country  "  beyond  the  River 
Ohio "  into  the  Northwest  Territory,  and  in  the 
following  spring  a  settlement  was  made  under  this 
ordinance,  by  Revolutionary  veterans,  at   Marietta. 

There  was  already  a  sparse  settlement  of  Ameri- 
cans *  at  what  is  now  Cincinnati,  at  Clarksville  and 
other  places  along  the  Ohio  ;  while  small  clumps  of 
French  and  half-breed  traders  and  voyageurs  were 
to  be  found  at  Fort  Wayne,  South  Bend  and  Vin- 
cennes,  in  the  present  State  of  Indiana,  at  Peoria, 
Kaskaskia  and  Chartres,  in  the  Illinois  country,  at 
Detroit  and  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  in  Michigan,  and  at 
Green  Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien  and  La  Pointe,  in 
Wisconsin.  A  census  of  these  widely  scattered 
settlements  at  that  time  would  not  have  revealed 
the  presence  in  all  that  vast  territory  of  over  thirty 
thousand  white  persons. 


*The  term  "  Americans,"  in  this  volume,  is  used  in  the  customarj"  sense  —  meaning  the 
people  of  the  United  States. 


122  ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

But  the  Indians  were  abundant.     As  the  seasons 
went  and  came,  the  red  savages  drifted  restlessly 
between  planting  field    and  hunting  ground,   now 
and    then    scalping  American    intruders    on    their 
domain  when  they  could  do  so  with  impunity,  but 
when  close-pressed  making  treaties  with  their  pale- 
face brethren  with  much  display  of    barbaric   elo- 
quence,   coupled    with     endless     ceremonial     and 
profuse  promises  of  life-long  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  that  natural  foe  who  was  relentlessly  supplanting 
them    in   the  homes    of    their  fathers.     Intimately 
mingled  with    these  far-from-guileless    children  of 
the  forest,  with  savage  wives  and  half-savage  chil- 
dren to  tie  them   to  the   camp-fires  of   barbarism, 
were  Frenchmen  like  the  Wisconsin  pioneers,  Lang- 
lade and  Gautier,  whose  interests  were  wrapped  up 
in    the  fur-trade,  a    commerce   necessarily  antago- 
nistic to    the   advance    of  agricultural    settlement. 
There  were  renegade  whites,  too,  like  the  bloody- 
handed   Pennsylvanian,  Simon  Girty,  long  the  ter- 
ror of  the  border,  who,  bedaubed  with    ochre  and 
bedecked  iu  war-bonnet,  hated  like  the  savage  and 
schemed  hke  the  white,  bringing  new  and  startling 
terrors  into  the  ancient  methods  of  Indian  warfare. 
English  officials  s])urred  them  on  —  French  trad- 
ers, voyai^curs  and  half-l)reed  chiefs  alike  —  making 
gifts    of    military  commissions,  gay  uniforms,  sup- 
plies and   am  mil  11  it  ion,  and  many  a  covert  promise 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.         I  2^^ 

of  some  time  comino:  to  their  aid  with  the  kincr's 
army  and  driving  out  settlers  from  the  natural 
home  of  the  fur-trade.  These  English  ofificers  at 
the  Northwestern  posts  secretly  fomented  disorder, 
kept  alive  the  sparks  of  border  conflagration  — 
menaced  the  spread  of  the  American  colonies  by 
the  agency  of  the  ambush  and  the  scalping  knife. 

In  1794,  the  Jay  treaty  provided  for  the  evacua- 
tion by  England  of  the  posts  still  held  by  her 
within  the  American  boundaries.  This  was  in 
November.  In  August,  Mad  Anthony  Wayne  had, 
at  the  head  of  a  gallant  little  army  of  pioneers  and 
United  States  troops,  humbled  the  Maumees  at 
the  famous  Battle  of  the  Fallen  Timbers,  and 
broken  the  backbone  of  savage  power  in  the  North- 
west, thus  practically  closing  the  Revolutionary 
War.  The  date  fixed  for  the  evacuation  was  the 
first  day  of  June,  1796,  and  Wisconsin  may  be  said 
to  have  then  become  acknowledo;ed  American  terri- 
tory  for  the  first  time. 

During  this  period  of  thirteen  years,  when  Wis- 
consin was  nominally  a  part  of  the  United  States, 
but  still  under  the  domination  of  England,  there 
was  but  little  growth  worthy  of  the  name.  Yet,  as 
we  glance  backward  through  the  record,  we  find 
that  seeds  were  then  planted  which  were,  after 
long  lying  dormant,  destined  to  produce  good  re- 
sults.    In   1 78 1,  three   French-Canadian  voyageurs. 


124         ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

Giard,  Ange  and  Antaya  by  name,  settled  at 
Prairie  du  Chien  and  made  there  what  may  be 
called  the  first  permanent  establishment,  for  the 
Cardinells  were  rovers.  Land  titles  date  from 
this  settlement  of   178 1. 

It  has  been  stoutly  claimed  that  in  1789,  a  French 
Creole  blacksmith  and  trader,  named  Jean  Baptiste 
Mirandeau,  reared  a  log  shop  and  trading  shanty  at 
the  mouth  of  Milwaukee  River,  hard  by  the  poly- 
glot Indian  villao^e  which  had  lonor  been  located 
there,  and  thus  became  the  first  white  settler  of 
what  developed  into  the  Wisconsin  metropolis. 
But  this  historic  claim  is  a  doubtful  one;  it  is  at 
least  probable  that  Mirandeau  did  not  build  his 
smithy's  forge  on  the  shores  of  Milwaukee  Bay 
until  eight  or  ten  years  later,  after  Vieau's  arrival. 
We  have  already  seen  that  bluff  old  Captain  Rob- 
ertson found  a  trader  at  Milwaukee,  in  1779,  whom 
he  called  "  Morong,"  and  it  is  recorded  that  another 
Frenchman  was  engaged  in  Indian  commerce  there 
as  early  as  1762.  But  these  were  spasmodic  enter- 
prises. In  1795,  Jacques  Vieau,  as  agent  of  the 
Northwest  Company,  established  fur-trading  posts 
at  Kewaunee,  Sheboygan,  Manitowoc  and  Milwau- 
kee, and  made  Milwaukee  his  winter  home  until 
iSiS,  when  he  introduced  Solomon  Juneau  to  the 
scene.  Juneau  had  married  Vieau's  sprightly 
daughter,    Josetle,    and    succeeded    to    his    father- 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.         I  25 

in-law's  trade.  The  3'oungcr  man  is  usually  ac- 
corded the  credit  of  being  the  pioneer  of  Mil- 
waukee, because  he  was  the  owner  of  the  land 
upon  which  the  village  plat  was  afterwards  laid 
out,  and  was  found  in  possession  of  the  site  by  the 
earliest  American  settlers  from  the  Eastern  States. 
But  old  Jacques  Vieau  led  the  way,  and  his  ser- 
vices as  a  pioneer  of  civilization  deserve  more  rec- 
ognition at  the  hands  of  the  people  of  Milwaukee 
than  they  have  received.  Juneau  has  a  park  and 
an  avenue  named  after  him  ;  and  in  the  one  and  near 
the  head  of  the  other,  there  has  been  erected  a 
noble  bronze  statue  of  the  wily  old  Frenchman  who 
first  sold  village  lots  to  Milwaukeeans,  over  half  a 
century  ago.  Vieau,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been 
ignored  by  the  generations  which  succeeded  him, 
and  few  there  are  who  ever  heard  his  name. 

For  a  century  and  a  half  the  portage  plain  be- 
tween the  Fox  and  the  Wisconsin  Rivers  had  been 
freely  traversed  by  a  motley  procession  of  Indians, 
Jesuits,  explorers,  traders,  voyageiirs  and  soldiers. 
A  well-beaten  path  had  been  formed  here,  each  party 
either  doing  its  own  work  of  transportation  across 
the  narrow  neck  of  land,  a  mile  and  a  half  in  width, 
or  employing  the  Indians  of  the  neighborhood.  In 
the  spring  of  1 793,  a  trader  and  trapper  named 
Laurent  Barth,  obtained  from  his  dusky  friends 
permission  to  set  up  in  business  at  the  portage  as 


126         ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

a  forwarder.     Barth  engaged  the  services  of  a  horse 
in  the  work  and  constructed  a  rude  sort  of  wheeled 
baro-e  upon  which  were  slung  the  canoes  and  ba- 
teaux  of   his  patrons.     What  with  the  profits  of  a 
small  trade  with  the  Indians  and  his  occasional  fees 
as   a    common  carrier,  Barth  succeeded  for  a  few 
years  in  making  both  ends  meet  in  his  household 
accounts,  which  was  about  all  the  average  French 
trader  of  the  olden  time  ever  hoped  to  do.     But  in 
1798,  another  Creole,  Jean  Ecuyer,  appeared  at  the 
portage  and,  having  married  the  sister  of  the  resi- 
dent Winnebago  chief,  was  granted  the  privilege  of 
starting  an   opposition  line.     Ecuyer    had    several 
horses   and  introduced  improved   methods,  so  that 
poor  Barth  was  gradually  driven  to  the  wall.     The 
ambitious  Ecuyer  opened  a  trading  shanty ;    about 
the  same  time  Jacques  Vieau  came  out  with  some 
goods  from   Milwaukee,  and  staid  for  a  season  or 
two  ;  then  appeared  Augustin  Grignon  and  Jacques 
Porlicr,  of  Green   Bay,  in    1801,  and  one  Campbell 
in  i<So3.      Barth  withdrew  at  last,  leaving  Campbell 
and  Ecuyer  to  fight  it  out  between  tlicm.     Laurent 
\''\\\\j  was  the  transportation    agent    in    18 10,  and 
during  the  War  of  1S12-15  iMancis  Le  Roy  carried 
on   the   business.     We  learn   from   an    old    invoice 
that  Ec  I\oy's  (barges  were  ten  dollars  for  carrying 
an  cinpty  boal  fi-om  one  river  to  the  other,  and  fifty 
cents  per  hiiiulicd  pounds  of  meiThandise.      It  is  no 


THE  KRITISH  CAMP.      {See /age  r42.) 


I 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.  I  29 

wonder  that  ooods  were  almost  worth  their  weiirht 
in  gold  by  the  time  they  reached  the  far-away  camps 
of  the  Indian  hunters.  Joseph  Rolette  and  lastly 
Pierre  Paquette  were,  in  later  times,  the  carriers 
over  the  portage.  But  in  1829  a  United  States 
fort  was  reared  here,  at  the  meeting  of  the  divergent 
waters,  and  a  hybrid  settlement  sprung  up  about 
the  walls,  which  grew  into  the  prosperous  Portage 
city  of  our  own  day. 

La  Pointe,  on  Chequamegon  Bay,  in  Lake  Su- 
perior —  first  on  the  mainland,  and  afterwards  on 
Madelaine  Island  —  had  been  a  trading  post,  off  and 
on,  ever  since  the  days  of  our  old  friends  Radisson 
and  Groseilliers ;  but  upon  the  outbreak  of  the 
French  War  it  had  been  deserted,  and  it  was  not 
until  1765  that  the  trade  was  re-established  there 
with  the  Chippewas,  this  time  under  an  English- 
man named  Henry.  The  station  grew  to  become 
the  entrepot  for  the  entire  Chippewa  country. 

In  1784,  there  were  three  traders  at  La  Pointe. 
By  1800,  Michel  'Cadotte,  a  famous  leader  in  North- 
western foreign  commerce,  set  up  his  stockade  on 
the  island,  and,  marrying  the  daughter  of  an 
influential  Chippewa  chief,  obtained  a  strong  hold 
upon  the  affections  and  patronage  of  the  tribe. 
Under  the  American  Fur  Company  the  Warrens 
were  Cadotte's  successors.  They  staid  until  the 
days  of  the  fur  trade  were  practically  ended  and  La 


I30         ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

Pointe,  under  the    new  dispensation,  ceased  to  be 
a  commercial  center. 

When  the  United  States  assumed  the  proprietor- 
ship of  the  Northwest  it  agreed  to  respect  the  rights 
of  the  Indians  to  whatever  territory  they  then  held 
as  hunting  grounds.  The  Indians,  upon  the  other 
hand,  were  obliged  to  agree  that  they  would  sell 
their  lands  only  to  the  general  Government.  Thus 
all  of  what  is  now  Wisconsin  was  recognized  as 
Indian  country ;  the  small  French-Canadian  settle- 
ments at  Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien  remain- 
ing by  native  sufferance. 

Before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
Sac  and  Fox  tribes  had,  in  numerous  assaults, 
been  driven  by  the  French  from  their  old  hunting 
grounds  in  the  Fox  and  Wolf  valleys.  Forced 
into  the  country  along  the  Mississippi  River  be- 
tween the  mouths  of  the  Wisconsin  and  Rock, 
they  had  in  that  section  important  villages  and 
exercised  control  over  the  lead  mines.  But  before 
the  resistless  march  of  white  settlement  Indian 
occupation  was  doomed.  Colonization  in  the  lead 
district  was  increasing  yearly,  and  it  seemed  nec- 
essary to  open  a  new  farming  district  to  the  Illinois 
j)ioncers. 

In  1804  the  Government  made  a  treaty  with  the 
Sacs  and  lH)xes  by  which  these  tribes  ceded  to 
the  United   States  a  tract   that  may  be   roughly  de- 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.  I  31 

scribed  as  the  irregular  triangle  lying  between  the 
Illinois  and  Wisconsin  rivers.*  It  embraced  what 
is  now  Northwestern  Illinois  and  Southwestern 
Wisconsin,  and  included  the  large  lead  district. 
This  was  one  of  the  earliest  purchases  of  Indian 
territory  in  the  Northwest,  but  the  details  of  the 
agreement  were  uncertain  in  phraseology,  and  a 
generation  later  led  to  misunderstanding  which  re- 
sulted, as  we  shall  see,  in  the  Black  Hawk  War  and 
the  forcible  expulsion  of  the  red  men  from  the  dis- 
puted tract. 

It  was  not  until  the  close  of  the  War  of  18 12-15, 
that  Wisconsin  came  really  under  the  domination 
of  Americans.  After  the  treaty  of  1794,  British 
traders,  with  French  and  half-breed  clerks  and  voy- 
ageurs,  were  still  permitted  free  intercourse  with 
Wisconsin  savages  and  had  substantial  control  of 
them.  When  the  Pontiac  uprising  had  been  quelled 
and  it  was  safe  for  British  civilians  to  enter  the 
Northwest,  a  small  party  of  Scotch  traders  re-opened 
the  fur  trade,  with  headquarters  at  Mackinaw,  and 
employed  French  voyageurs.  In  1783,  the  North- 
west Company  was  formed,  although  not  fully 
organized  until  four  years  later.  This  corporation 
proposed  to  become  a  rival  of  the  powerful  Hudson 
Bay  Company  and   had   its  headquarters   in    Mon- 

*  At  the  same  time  a  coiisidernble  territory  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  was 
ceded,  together  with  a  tract  two  miles  square,  just  north  of  tlie  month  of  the  Wisconsin  —  the 
site  of  Prairie  du  Chien  —  upon  which  the  Government  was  authorized  to  construct  a  fort. 


132         ENGLISH  DOMIXATION  CONTINUED. 

treal,  with  distributing  points  at  Detroit,  Mackinaw, 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  Grand  Portage.*  Its  clerks 
and  voyageurs  were  wide  travelers  and  carried  the 
Company's  trade  throughout  the  far  West,  from 
Great  Slave  Lake  on  the  north  to  the  valleys  of 
the  Platte  and  the  Arkansas  on  the  south,  and  to 
the  parks  and  basins  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Goods  were  sent  up  the  lakes  from  Montreal,  either 
by  relays  of  sailing  vessels,  with  portages  of  mer- 
chandise and  men  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara  and  the 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  or  by  picturesque  fleets  of  ba- 
teaux and  canoes  up  the  great  Ottawa  River  and 
down  French  Creek  into  Georgian  Bay  of  Lake 
Huron,  from  there  scattering  to  the  Company's 
various  entrepots  to  the  south,  west  and  north. 

These  Creole  boatmen  were  a  reckless  set. 
They  took  life  easily,  but  bore  ill  even  the  mildest 
restraints  of  the  trading  settlements;  their  home 
was  on  the  rivers  and  in  the  Indian  camps,  where 
they  joyously  partook  of  the  most  humble  fare  and 
on  occasion  were  not  averse  to  suffering  extraor- 
dinary hardships  in  the  service  of  their  exacting 
bourgeois.^     Their  pay  was  light,  but  their  thoughts 

•  The  portaRC  between  I-ake  Superior  and  the  waters  emptying  into  the  Lake  of  the 
Woml»  and  Lake  Winnepec  The  trading  post  was  at  the  head  of  a  bay  on  the  northwest 
roast  of  Lake  Superior,  some  five  miles  above  (southwest  of)  tlie  mouth  of  Pigeon  River. 
From  here,  there  was  a  carrying  place  nine  miles  in  length,  northward,  to  a  widening  of  the 
Pigeon  The  settlement  was  protected  by  a  fort  which  was  the  great  halting  place  of  voy- 
ageur,  and  traders  to  and  from  Lake  Superior  and  the  Winnepeg,  Atlialxisca  and  Orcat  Slave 
Lake  regions.  (Jran.l  Portage  was  an  irnpnrtan.  dep.,t  for  the  fur  trade  as  .-arly  as  .737. 
I   Master 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.         1 33 

were  lighter,  and  the  sepulchral  arches  of  the  forest 
rang  with  the  gay  laughter  of  these  heedless  ad- 
venturers ;  while  the  pent-up  valleys  of  our  bluff- 
girted  streams  echoed  the  refrains  of  their  rudely- 
melodious  boating  songs,  which  served  the  double 
purpose  of  whiling  the  idle  hours  away  and  meas- 
uring progress  along  the  glistening  waterways. 

In  1S09,  John  Jacob  Astor,  then  a  rising  power 
in  the  forest  trade  of  the  continent,  secured  a 
charter  for  the  American  Fur  Company.  His  aim 
was  to  establish  a  trading  post  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River,  near  the  extreme  northwest  corner 
of  the  United  States,  and  to  link  this  station  with 
Mackinaw  by  means  of  forts  planted  along  the  Mis- 
souri River,  which  had  been  explored  by  Lewis  and 
Clark  a  few  years  previous.  Astor  sent  out  two 
expeditions  for  the  Pacific  coast  —  one  going  by 
sea  via  Cape  Horn,  and  the  other  overland  via  the 
Fox-Wisconsin  route  and  the  Missouri.  The  land 
party,  in  charge  of  Wilson  P.  Hunt  and  Ramsay 
Crooks,  two  of  Astor's  lieutenants  in  the  fur  trade, 
started  from  Mackinaw  in  their  canoes,  the  twelfth 
of  August,  1809,  and  reached  Green  Bay  a  few 
days  later,  where  the  daring  explorers  were  regarded 
with  much  interest  by  the  few  habitaus  and  Indians 
who  were  then  settled  there.  Prairie  du  Chien  was 
passed  a  fortnight  later,  the  expedition  arriving  at 
St.  Louis  the  third   of   September,  en  route  for  the 


134         ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

ocean  of  the  west.  The  thrilHng  tale  of  their  fur- 
ther progress  across  the  continent,  is  among  the 
most  familiar  in  American  history,  for  Washington 
Irving  has  embalmed  it  in  his  fascinating  "  Astoria." 

Another  notable  party  passed  over  the  Fox-Wis- 
consin waterway,  the  same  season —  Thomas  Nutt- 
all,  the  botanist,  and  John  Bradbury,  the  Scotch 
naturalist,  both  of  them  eminent  among  the  scien- 
tific men  of  their  day.  They  were  on  their  way  to 
the  Missouri-River  country  to  collect  specimens 
for  study,  and  took  extended  notes  on  Wisconsin 
flora  and  fauna. 

Astor  bouo;ht  a  half-interest  in  the  Mackinaw 
Company,  a  rival  of  the  Northwest  Company,  in 
1811,  and  united  his  American  Fur  Company  with 
the  former,  the  new  concern  being  entitled  the 
Southwest  Company.  But  the  war  with  Great  Brit- 
ain soon  opened,  the  Northwest  Company  seized 
Astoria,  the  station  founded  by  Astor  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  with  such  heroic  zeal,  and  the 
Southwest  Company  was  ruined. 

Tecumseh's  uprising,  in  181 1,  involved  many 
is(jlated  bands  of  Wisconsin  Indians,  chiefly  Chip- 
pewas,  Winnebagoes,  Pottawatomies,  Sacs  and 
I*"()xes,  anrl  not  a  few  war  chiefs  of  local  renown 
parlicip.iti'd  in  the  battle  of  Tijipccanoe,  on  the 
seventh  of  November.  Tlu'  I*'nglish  i)ursued  their 
cnstoin.ir)'  inctliod  of  openly  egging  on  the  North- 


ENGLISH  DOMINAl'ION  CONTINUED.  135 

western  savages  in  any  contemplated  assault  on  the 
American  settlements,  and  the  French  fur-traders 
were  unanimous  in  their  support  of  the  English 
policy.  That  policy  was  the  preservation  of  the 
forests  to  the  profitable  fur  trade  and  the  conse- 
quent repression  of  the  growth  of  agricultural  set- 
tlement on  the  part  of  Americans.  During  the 
war  of  181 2-1 5,  which  followed,  nearly  every  Wis- 
consin trader  held  a  commission  in  the  British 
army,  and  the  country  between  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  Mississippi  River  was  again  an  important  re- 
cruiting ground  for  savage  allies  of  England. 

The  American  policy  assumed  toward  Great 
Britain,  had  for  some  years  previous  been  one  of 
weakness  and  vacillation,  and  retaliation  for  wrongs 
was  confined  to  commercial  restrictions  which  in- 
evitably failed  of  their  intended  effect.  This 
Quaker-like  conduct  on  our  part  served  but  to  em- 
bolden the  English,  and  aggressions  and  injuries 
were  on  the  increase.  Nowhere  was  this  more 
evident  than  in  the  Northwest,  where  Americans 
were  everywhere  met  with  British  insolence  and 
Albion  held  our  frontier  in  an  iron  grip.  But  at 
last,  yielding  to  popular  impatience,  a  more  resolute 
tone  was  adopted  at  Washington,  and  by  the  act 
of  June  18,  181 2,  the  United  States  declared  war 
asrainst  Great  Britain. 

The  principal   event  of  the   War,  in   Wisconsin, 


136  EXGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 


was  the  capture  by  the  British  of  the  American 
fort  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  General  William  Clark, 
of  Lewis  and  Clark  exploring  fame,  and  a  brother 
of  George  Rogers  Clark,  the  Revolutionary  hero, 
was  at  this  time  2.o\^ernor  of  Missouri  Territory  and 
as  such  commandant  of  the  American  forces  in  the 
Upper  Mississippi  country.  Impressed  with  the 
importance  of  controlling  the  western  outlet  of  the 
Fox-Wisconsin  waterway,  he  dispatched  Lieutenant 
Joseph  Perkins  with  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
volunteers  and  soldiers  on  board  of  a  bullet-proof 
keel-boat,  to  Prairie  du  Chien.  This  was  late  in 
the  fall  of  181 3.  By  the  time  winter  set  in,  Per- 
kins had  erected  a  creditable  stockade  on  the  sum- 
mit of  one  of  the  large  mounds  which  freely  dot 
the  prairie  —  mysterious  relics  of  those  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Wisconsin,  whose  earthworks  occupy 
the  sites  of  scores  of  our  prosperous  modern  towns. 
Perkins  divided  his  forces  between  the  stockade, 
which  he  styled  l^)rt  Shelby,  and  the  improvised 
(j-unboat  which  had  transported  them  hither.  The 
latter,  seventy  feet  in  length  and  bearing  the  name 
of  Governor  Clark  Gunboat,  No.  i,  was  anchored 
in  th(j  middle  of  llie  Mississippi  River,  immediately 
in  fi'ont  of  llu-  fort,  and  mounted  fourteen  pieces 
of  cannon,  wlillc  the  garrison  ashore  was  protected 
])y  six  pieces.  Uuiing  the  protracted  winter,  the 
little   band    of    troops   had    fi-((|nrntly   to    entertain 


ENGLISH  DOMJA'ATION  CONTINUED.        137 

squads  of  Indian  spies,  chiefly  Winnebagoes,  sent 
out  by  the  English  fur-trader,  Robert  Dickson,  wlio 
was  passing  the  season  at  Lake  Winnebago,  where 
he  had  collected  a  large  number  of  red  men  in 
preparation  for  an  active  spring  campaign  against 
the  Americans. 

Dickson  was  one  of  the  leading  fur-traders  in  the 
employ  of  the  Northwest  Company.  He  had  had 
headquarters  at  Prairie  du  Chien  for  several  years 
past  and  engaged  in  operations  extending  to  the 
sources  of  the  Mississippi  and  far  up  the  Minnesota. 
During  the  war,  Dickson  held  local  rank  as  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel in  the  British  service  and  rendered 
as  effective  service  as  was  possible,  in  keeping 
Wisconsin  Indians  in  line  with  the  interests  of  his 
government.  It  was  while  upon  this  service  that  he 
and  his  Indian  allies  were  caught  at  Garlic  Island, 
in  Lake  Winnebago  (December,  18 13),  by  an  early 
freezing  of  those  waters  and  obliged  to  camp  there 
for  the  winter.  From  this  camp,  spies  and  runners 
were  frequently  dispatched  to  Milwaukee,  Peoria 
and  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  news  of  American  move- 
ments, more  or  less  distorted  by  savage  vision,  was 
sent  on  by  Dickson  to  his  correspondents  in  Green 
Bay  and  Mackinaw.  In  these  letters,  scores  of 
which  are  before  me  as  I  write,  the  trader  gave  a 
spicy  account  of  his  troubles  with  the  Indians,  who, 
after  their  usual  fashion,  played  fast  and  loose  and 


I  ^.8       ENGLISH  DOMINATJON  CONTINUED. 


had  to  be  bribed  afresh  every  few  days,  with  no 
certainty  but  what  they  were  equally  pledged  to  the 
agents  of  the  enemy.  Provisions  were  soon  ex- 
hausted and  the  Green  Bay  traders,  while  nearly  all 
of  them  salaried  servants  of  the  king,  were  exacting 
in  their  terms  for  recompense.  No  sooner  had 
fresh  goods  arrived  up  the  ice-bound  Fox,  than 
starving  Indians  came  swarming  to  Garlic  Island 
from  forty  miles  around,  like  flocks  of  vultures,  and 
ate  poor  Dickson  out  of  house  and  home.  Again 
and  again  had  the  Green  Bay  forwarders  to  be 
drawn  upon,  each  time  with  increased  difficulty 
and  enhanced  prices,  the  enraged  Dickson  mean- 
while pelting  his  tormentors  with  opprobrious  epi- 
thets and  threatening  to  call  upon  them  the  king's 
wrathful  hand.  It  was  the  middle  of  April  before 
the  partisan  could  reach  the  Fox-Wisconsin  portage 
and  enter  upon  the  slow  and  painful  task  of  collect- 
ing Indians  at  that  old-time  rendezvous,  for  the 
proposed  military  exjjcdition  against  Fort  Shelby. 

Meanwhile,  Ca}:)tain  James  Pullman,  of  the  Brit- 
ish army,  \\nC\  his  local  lieutenants,  John  Lawc  and 
Louis  Grignon,  were  busy  in  organizing  a  militia 
company  among  the  Green  Piay  hahilans.  At 
Prairie  du  Chicn,  the  American  Iiulian  agent, 
Nicholas  Boilvin,an(l  a  I^-ench  trader  in  the  Ameri- 
can interest,  namcil  [.u  rol,  addressed  what  Dick- 
son calls  "  tw(j   llaining   Fj)istles    to   the   people  of 


ENGLISH  D  OMINA  7 V  ON  CONTINUE /).        139 

the  prairie  —  exhorting  them  to  claim  the  protec- 
tion of  the  great  republic  before  it  is  too  late  & 
a  great  deal  of  other  stuff."  Brisbois  and  Rolette, 
however,  the  leading  traders  at  the  prairie,  were 
stanch  in  their  adhesion  to  the  British,  and  the 
latter  spent  the  winter  at  Mackinaw  drilling  his 
engages  and  preparing  to  assist  in  wresting  his 
home  settlement  from  the  intrusive  Americans. 

War  parties  relying  for  their  strength  upon  the 
alliance  of  Indians,  always  move  slowly.  It  was 
the  twenty-eighth  of  June  before  Colonel  Robert 
McDouall,  then  commandant  at  Mackinaw,  could 
get  the  expedition  started  from  the  island.  Major 
William  McKay,  temporarily  given  the  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel, headed  the  party,  which  consisted 
of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  Sioux  and 
Winnebagoes ;  some  seventy-five  French-Canadian 
engages,  under  their  bourgeois,  Joseph  Rolette  and 
Thomas  G.  Anderson,  who  were  given  the  local 
rank  of  captain ;  and  about  twenty  regulars  of  the 
Michigan  Fencibles  under  Pullman.  The  warriors 
reached  Green  Bay,  in  their  birch-bark  canoes,  six 
days  later,  and  there  were  promptly  joined  by  Louis 
Grignon,  a  valiant  Creole  trader  wearing  the  gay 
scarlet  coat  and  golden  epaulettes  of  a  captain  of 
volunteers,*  and  having  in  his  company  thirty  of 
the  habitans  of   Green  Bay,  mostly  his  own  engages 

*  This  coat  can  still  be  seen  in  the  niusenm  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society. 


I40       ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

—  classed  in   the  reports  as  "almost   all   old  men 
unfit  for  service." 

After  a  good  deal  of  feasting,  speech-making  and 
present-giving,  the  Indians  of  the  Green  Bay  dis- 
trict were  worked  up  into  a  sufficient  degree  of  en- 
thusiasm, and  with  another  hundred  dusky  recruits 
the  expedition  was  enabled  to  resume  its  progress. 
Never  did  the  mirrored  surface  of  the  Fox  reflect  a 
more  singular  spectacle.  The  enemy  was  far  away, 
and  none  of  the  customary  safeguards  of  scouting 
parties  were  essential ;  yet  there  was  a  certain 
reoularity  in  the  formation  of  the  flotilla,  for  the 
savao-e  mind  delights  in  ceremonial,  and  McKay 
was  instructed  to  fully  imbue  his  forest  allies  with 
a  sense  of  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the 
undertaking.  A  few  canoe-loads  of  French  woods- 
men, dressed  for  the  most  part  in  whitened  buck- 
skin and  gay  with  red  mob-caps  and  fringed  sashes, 
led  the  van,  polished  rifles  gleaming  above  their 
baf'-rrafc  packs.  Then  followed  a  bateau  with 
officers  and  the  royal  colors,  in  the  bow  of  which 
was  planted  a  three-pound  cannon,  in  charge  of  a 
bombardier  of  tlic  Royal  Artillery,*  an  outfit  de- 
signed to  impress  the  Indians  with  a  sense  of  awe. 
Next    came    straggling    along    the    canoes    of    the 


•  In  his  official  report  of  the  outfit,  Coloni-1  Mcnouall  says:  "  I  aRrcetl  to  let  tliem  Ttlie 
Indian  cliicfs)  have  the  ihrcx-pountlcr  I  l)ioiii;lil  from  York,  chitdy  frr-m  tlio  novoUy  of  the 
thini;  amonv  the  IntUans,  &  the  cfTcct  it  will  li.ivc  in  aii.mn.iitiiit;  thiir  niinilicrs,  I  attarhcfl  to 
it  a  liomharjlicr  of  the  Koyal  Arlill  ry." 


ENGLISH  DOM  I  y ATI  ON  CONTINUED. 


141 


natives,  each  band  with  its  war  chiefs,  followed 
by  the  weather-beaten  engages  and  miscellaneous 
habitans  ixoxvi  Mackinaw  and  Green  Bay,  the  pro- 
cession closinor  with  the  Michis^an  Fencibles  euard- 
the  commissary's  bateaux.  The  fair  valley  —  now 
skirted   with    bluffs,   now   spreading  far  and   wide, 


-455:5 


the  flood  oft  overhung  with  gloomy  pines  and 
again  hedged  by  great,  undulating  walls  of  reeds 
—  ranir  with  the  wild  notes  of  Canadian  boatincr 
songs,  keeping  time  to  the  strokes  of  gleaming 
paddles.  The  soldiers,  to  the  rear,  often  broke 
forth  with  martial  airs,  and  for  the  first  time  these 


142        ENGLISH  DO  All  NATION  CONTINUED. 

Wisconsin  hills  echoed  the  swelling  notes  of  "  The 
British  Grenadier,"  "God  save  the  King!"  and 
"  Britannia's  the  Queen  of  the  Ocean."  The 
rude  war-songs  of  the  painted  savages  frequently 
woke  the  forest  calm.  At  night,  around  the 
camp  fires,  under  the  trees,  upon  the  river  bank, 
there  was  gay  revelry  indeed,  with  the  shouts,  the 
songs,  the  gay  laughter,  and  the  scraping  of  the 
little  French  fiddles  in  the  white  quarter;  while 
around  tlieir  own  council  fires  the  red  men  rent  the 
air  with  discordant  yelps  as  they  leaped  and  plunged 
and  fiercely  gestured  in  the  demoniac  war  dance, 
keeping  time  to  the  monotonous  boom  of  the 
Indian  drum.  With  the  smart  caps  and  sashes 
and  fringed  coats  of  the  woodsmen,  the  crude  blue 
and  yellow  and  red  of  the  Mackinaw-suited  Jiabitmis, 
the  red  and  blue  and  shining  brass  of  the  Fencibles, 
and  the  many-hued  l^lankcts  of  the  befeathered 
and  ochre-daubed  aborigines,  this  human  mosaic 
slowly  i:)roceeded  through  the  glistening  flood, 
hoping  to  capture  and  hold  Wisconsin  for  His 
]-)ritrinnic    Majesty. 

A I  the  portage,  Dickson  met  the  expedition  with 
en(nigh  Sioux,  Winnebagocs,  Menomonees  and 
Chippcwas  In  make  up  the  allied  forces  to  six  hun- 
dred and  fifty  — of  whom  all  but  one  liundred  and 
twenty  were  Indians,  who,  as  McKay  reports, 
"  ]:)roved    to    be    perfectly    useless."      Perhaps     the 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.        143 

only  advantage  of  having  them  on  the  roll,  was  the 
fact  that  had  their  nominal  assistance  not  been 
engaged  they  might  have  sadly  harassed  the  whites 
while  threading  the  Fox-Wisconsin  water-way. 

It  was  noon  of  July  17  when  McKay's  motley 
crew  came  gliding  through  the  delta  of  the  Wis- 
consin and  landed  on  a  sandy  bank  abutting  the 
waters  of  the  Mississippi.  The  commander  found 
that  the  land-force  of  the  Americans,  numbering 
sixty  or  seventy  effective  men  and  being  protected 
by  six  pieces  of  cannon,  was  for  the  most  part  en- 
sconced behind  the  little  stockade,  in  addition  to 
which  were  two  block-houses  regarded  as  perfectly 
safe  against  Indians.  In  the  river  lay  the  Governor 
Clark,  with  her  fourteen  cannon  and  a  force  some- 
what larger  than  the  garrison.  The  outlook  was 
not  at  first  promising  for  the  British  commander, 
but  he  made  bold  within  half  an  hour  of  his 
arrival  to  summon  Perkins  to  "  surrender  uncondi- 
tionally, otherwise  to  defend  yourself  to  the  last 
man."     Without  delay,  Perkins  curtly  replied  : 

"  Sir,  —  I  received  your  polite  note  and  prefer 
the  latter,  and  am  determined  to  defend  to  the  last 
man." 

It  was  not  the  intention  of  McKay  to  begin  his 
attack  until  the  next  morning  at  daylight,  but  the 
Indians  were  clamorous  to  see  the  thrce-pounder 
at  work,  and   in  order  to  amuse   them  the  arm  was 


144       ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

brought  to  bear  upon  the  gunboat.  In  the  course 
of  three  hours  two  thirds  of  the  eighty-six  shot 
fired,  penetrated  the  Governor  Clark,  which  replied 
with  vigor,  the  garrison  in  the  rear  meanwhile 
pouring  upon  the  British  hot  volleys  of  musketry. 
As  for  the  Indians,  they  mainly  employed  them- 
selves in  plundering  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants 
and  keeping  up  a  distant  and  ineffectual  fire  upon 
the  fort.  Finally,  the  gunboat,  finding  her  position 
too  warm,  slipped  her  cable  and,  running  in  behind 
an  island,  made  her  escape  down  stream.  McKay 
sent  a  party  of  Sacs,  in  canoes,  to  hang  upon  the 
wake  of  the  retreating  vessel,  annoy  the  crew  in 
every  possible  way,  and  prevent  them  from  debark- 
ing to  get  firewood.  A  party  of  Frenchmen  were 
dispatched  the  following  morning  who  followed  the 
Clark  as  far  as  the  rapids  at  Rock  Island ;  but 
another  fortified  keel-boat  from  down  stream  put  in 
an  appearance  here,  and  the  Creoles  were  frightened 
off.  A  day  or  two  later  there  were  six  American 
gunboats  of  the  Clark  pattern,  at  the  raj^ds ;  one 
of  them  was  boarded  by  the  Sac  party,  and  many 
Americans  tomahawked,  the  boat  being  finally 
destroyed  by  fire  ;  thereupon  the  others,  fearing 
the  presence  of  a  large  force  of  the  enemy,  dropped 
down  the  river  and  left  the  P)ritish  free  to  complete 
their  woi-k  at   PiMiric  dii  ( "hicn. 

Mcaiiuhilc,  McKay    turned    his   attention    to   the 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.        1 45 

fort,  A  good  deal  of  ammunition  was  spent,  and 
the  English  supply  soon  became  short.  At  six  in 
the  evening  of  the  nineteenth  there  were  left  but 
six  rounds  for  the  three-pounder;  and  from  the 
foremost  of  two  breastworks  reared  by  his  men, 
McKay  was  preparing  to  throw  into  the  fort  all  six, 
red-hot,  with  the  hope  of  setting  it  on  fire.  At 
this  moment  a  white  flag  was  put  out,  and  soon  an 
American  officer  came  down  to  the  English  camp 
bearing  Perkins's  offer  to  surrender,  provided  the 
Indians  were  pledged  not  to  ill-treat  the  officers 
and  men.  McKay  was  a  humane  man,  and  prom- 
ised to  keep  the  Indians  quiet,  as  well  as  to  allow 
the  garrison  to  march  out  at  eight  o'clock  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  with  the  honors  of  war.  During 
the  night  he  placed  a  strong  guard  in  the  fort  and 
took  possession  of  the  artillery.  The  stipulations 
made  by  McKay  were  faithfully  carried  out,  in  spite 
of  the  irritation  of  the  savages,  who  were  eager 
for  scalps  ;  he  confesses  that  his  powers  of  resist- 
ance were  sorely  tried,  and  nothing  but  supplica- 
tions, threats  and  vigilance  prevented  a  massacre. 
The  Indians  were  obliged  to  be  content  with  sack- 
ing the  town  and  destroying  the  growing  crops. 

In  this  engagement,  the  Americans,  reports 
McKay,  had  five  killed  and  ten  wounded  on  board 
the  gunboat,  and  three  wounded  in  the  fort.  The 
allies  do  not  appear  to  have  suffered  any  casualties. 


146       ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

A  large  stock  of  ammunition,  provisions  and  arma- 
ments fell  into  the  hands  of  the  captors,  by  reason 
of  the  surrender.  The  prisoners  they  were  not  en- 
abled to  keep.  Soon  after  the  capture  Perkins 
and  his  men  were  given  back  their  arms  and  sent 
down  the  river  to  St.  Louis. 

It  had  been  the  purpose  of  McKay,  after  reduc- 
ing Fort  Shelby,  to  drop  down  the  Mississippi  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  and,  ascending  that 
stream,  to  lay  siege  to  the  American  fort  at  Peoria. 
But  the  reports  brought  to  him  by  his  Indian  spies, 
of  the  size  of  the  American  force  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi below  Rock  Island,  induced  him  to  forego 
so  hazardous  a  project.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Americans  appear  to  have  received  an  exaggerated 
report  of  the  strength  of  the  English-invading 
party  at  the  mouth  ot  the  Wisconsin,  and  failed  to 
make  an  attempt  to  displace  it.  That  McKay  did 
not  consider  his  position  tenable,  is  evident  from 
his  report  to  McDouall,  made  the  twenty-seventh 
of  July,  in  which  he  says  of  the  outlook  :  "  My  de- 
cided opinion  is  that  from  this  to  tlie  fall  an  attack 
may  undoubtedly  l)e  looked  for  from  below,  and  if 
four  or  five  of  these  floating  block-houses  come  up 
armed,  as  the  (iovernor  Clark  was,  our  present 
force  is  cerlainK'  not  ec|ual  to  ])revent  their  re])ul- 
sing  us  unless  more  particularly  favored  by  Provi- 
dence than  l)ef()i-c." 


ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED.        147 

When  the  English  flag  was  run  to  the  head  of 
the  staff  in  Fort  Shelby,  the  name  of  the  establish- 
ment was  changed  to  Fort  McKay.  As  for  McKay 
himself,  he  remained  until  the  tenth  of  Augrust, 
when  he  left,  with  some  of  the  Indians,  regulars 
and  fur-trade  volunteers,  for  Mackinaw,  and  after- 
wards took  part  in  military  operations  along  the 
lower  lakes.  The  trader  Anderson  was  left  in 
charge  of  the  fort,  but  he  was  afterwards  relieved 
by  Capt.  A.  Bulger,  a  regular  officer.  The  winter 
was  spent  in  councils  with  and  presentations  to  the 
neighboring  savages,  who  adopted  this  diplomatic 
method  of  preying  upon  the  British  stores. 

The  welcome  news  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between 
the  United  States  and  England,  signed  at  Ghent 
the  twenty-fourth  of  December,  18 14,  reached  Wash- 
ington in  February,  1S15.  But  it  was  the  twenty- 
second  of  May  before  Captain  Bulger  received 
official  intelligence  of  the  event.  He  promptly 
wrote  to  Governor  Clark  at  St.  Louis,  on  the 
twenty-third,  signifying  his  acceptance  of  the  situa- 
tion. Clark  had  desired  him  to  await  the  arrival 
of  a  detachment  from  St,  Louis,  and  to  turn  over 
the  property  to  the  new  occupants  of  the  fort, 
but  Bulger  informed  his  correspondent  that  the 
presence  of  "detachments  of  British  and  United 
States  troops,  at  the  same  time,  at  Fort  McKay, 
would  be  the  means  of  embroiling  either  one  party 


148       ENGLISH  DOMINATION  CONTINUED. 

or  the  other,  in  a  fresh  rupture  with  the  Indians." 
The  fact  was,  that  Bulger  knew  enough  of  the 
character  of  his  Indian  allies,  to  fear  that  if 
they  saw  the  American  troops  coolly  turn  the 
British  out  of  the  stockade,  without  any  struggle 
on  the  part  of  the  latter,  his  party  would  be  con- 
temptuously dubbed  by  the  redskins  a  parcel  of 
"old  women,"  whom  it  would  be  fair  play  to  hence- 
forth plunder  and  maltreat.  Bulger  therefore 
quietly  hauled  down  his  flag  on  the  twenty-fourth 
of  May  and  beat  a  hasty  though  dignified  retreat 
to  Mackinaw.  There,  he  turned  over  to  the  United 
States  commandant  whatever  of  captured  arms 
and  stores  remained,  and  speedily  betook  himself 
to  Canada. 

And  thus  closed  the  long  period  of  British  domi- 
nation over  Wisconsin,  which  was  now  for  the  first 
time  American  soil  in  fact. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


WISCONSIN    BECOMES    AMERICANIZED. 


T  was  with  marked  re- 
luctance that  Eng- 
land parted  with  the 
Northwest.  In  1783, 
we  find  her  grudg- 
ingly agreeing  to  the 
Great  Lakes  as  an 
international  boun- 
dary, and  then  openly 
holding  the  country 
for  thirteen  years  longer,  upon  a  flimsy  pretext. 
We  see  that  she  still  kept  her  grip  upon  the  region, 
through  the  agency  of  the  fur  traders,  and  was 
practically  its  master  at  the  opening  of  the  second 
war  with  the  United  States.  During  that  war,  she 
made  desperate  attempts  to  plant  her  flag  at  the 
old  vantage  points,  and  actually  held  the  important 
Fox-Wisconsin  gateway  to  the  Mississippi  until 
the  close  of  the  struo;q;le.  At  the  convention  of 
Ghent,  her  commissioners  labored  hard  to  have  the 

greater  part  of  the  Northwest,  including  the  whole 

149 


150        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

of  Wisconsin,  declared   Indian  territory  under  her 
protection  ;  but  the  attempt  failed. 

The  United  States  had,  since  1803,  a  justice  of 
the  peace  at  Green  Bay,  in  the  person  of  Charles 
Reaume.  He  was  an  easy-tempered  and  jovial  old 
Frenchman,  who  had  been  originally  appointed  to 
the  position  by  Governor  Harrison  of  Indiana 
Territory,  and  who  held  over  when  Wisconsin 
became  attached  to  the  new  Territory  of  Illinois, 
in  1809.  But  Reaume's  rude  court  recognized  no 
known  statutes  of  the  United  States,  being  con- 
ducted upon  such  principles  of  common  justice 
as  commended  themselves  to  the  astute  mind  of 
Reaume  himself,  who  was  much  of  a  philosopher 
in  his  way,  and  understood  well  the  importance 
of  having  an  eye  to  the  main  chance.  And  so 
Reaume  continued  through  all  these  years  of  strug- 
Me  and  change,  drafting  antenuptial  agreements, 
marrying  and  divorcing,  registering  births  and 
deaths,  certifying  indifferently  to  either  American 
or  British  commissions,  drawing  up  contracts  for 
traders'  clerks  and  enc^as^es,  issuing  baptismal  cer- 
tificate's, and  what  not,  cither  in  wretched  French 
or  in  abominable  Fnglish  as  the  case  might  be  — 
general  scribe  and  notary  for  the  whole  country 
round:   a  ])irturt'S(|ue  and  important  functionary. 

Many  fjueer   stories   arc   told   of  judge    Reaume. 
He  was  a  balflhcaded,  poni])ous  old  P^H'nchman,and 


IVJSCONSJN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        151 

wore  on  all  public  occasions  a  scarlet  frock-coat, 
faced  with  white  silk  and  gay  with  spangled  but- 
tons, which  can  be  seen  to  this  day  in  the  State 
Historical  Society's  museum  at  Madison.  Instead 
of  issuing  a  summons,  he  would  often  instruct  the 
constable  to  exhibit  his  Honor's  well-known  larcje 
jack-knife  to  the  desired  witness  or  culprit,  and 
this  was  regarded  by  all  as  sufHcient  evidence  of 
judicial  authority.  A  bottle  of  whiskey  was  the 
strongest  argument,  it  was  said,  that  could  be 
offered  to  the  court.  On  more  than  one  occasion 
he  ordered  the  losing  party  to  work  for  a  certain 
number  of  days  upon  the  Reaume  farm,  and  often 
the  unoffending  constable  was  sentenced  to  pay 
the  costs  of  the  suit. 

At  first,  the  French  and  half-breeds  at  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  at  Milwaukee  and  Port- 
age and  La  Pointe,  did  not  relish  Yankee  interfer- 
ence in  their  beloved  Wisconsin.  They  had  gotten 
along  very  nicely  with  the  English,  who  fostered 
the  fur  trade  and  emplo3^ed  the  F'rench  with  liber- 
ality. Then  too,  among  the  habitans,  the  reputation 
of  these  Americans  was  not  the  best.  They  were 
known  to  be  a  busy,  bustling,  driving  people,  quite 
out  of  tune  with  the  devil-may-care  methods  of  the 
Creoles,  and  were,  moreover,  an  agricultural  race 
that  was  fast  narrowing  the  limits  of  the  hunting 
grounds.       The    Wisconsin    Frenchmen    felt    thnt 


152        WISCOA'S/N  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

their  interests  in  this  respect  were  identical  with 
those  of  the  savages,  hence  we  find  in  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  times*  a  very  bitter  tone  adopted 
towards  the  new-comers,  who  were  regarded  as 
intruders  and  covetous  disturbers  of  existing  com- 
mercial and  social  relations. 

As  it  was  found  that  the  English  fur  traders 
were  still  slyly  stirring  up  strife  on  the  part  of  the 
Indians  and  French,  Congress  enacted  in  1S16  that 
thereafter  no  foreign  traders  should  operate  in 
United  States  territory.  It  was  hoped  by  this  act 
to  put  a  stop  to  British  interference  in  the  North- 
west, but  the  law  was  openly  evaded.  The  fur 
trade  could  not  be  conducted  without  French- 
Canadian  interpreters  and  voyageurs,  and  the 
statute  was  so  construed  as  to  admit  these.  The 
Creoles  ostensibly  set  up  for  themselves  in  the 
forest  trade,  with  large  stocks  of  goods,  but  behind 
each  P^rench  or  half-breed  trader,  and  many  an 
alleged  American  proprietor  as  well,  was  an  Eng- 
lish suj)ply  firm  who  merely  used  him  as  an  agent. 

This  same  year  Astor  established  the  American 
Inir  Company,  with  headquarters  at  Mackinaw 
Island,  and  was  given  a  substantial  monopoly  of 
the  Indian  commerce;  but  it  was  long  before  he 
could  overcome  this  species  of   Ihitish  competition. 


•   Hiindrefis  of  Icllors  written  by  Wisconsin  fur-trade  agents  nnd  clerks  at  this  time,  are 
in  the  posHession  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society. 


IVJ SCONS  IN  BECOMES   AMERICANIZED.        153 

The  General  Government  also  tried  its  hand 
in  the  business  of  supplying  the  Northwestern 
Indians  with  the  products  of  civilization,  hoping 
that  through  trading  posts  established  at  the  sev- 
eral frontier  forts,  goods  could  be  furnished  at  low 
cost,  the  confidence  of  the  natives  secured,  and  the 
Englishmen  beaten  out  of  the  field. 

In  June,  1S16,  four  companies  of  riflemen  from  St. 
Louis,  under  Major  Morgan,  occupied  Prairie  du 
Chien  and  erected  on  the  site  of  Fort  McKay  a 
hollow  square  of  block-houses,  which  they  dubbed 
Fort  Crawford,  in  honor  of  William  H.  Crawford, 
then  secretary  of  the  treasury.  One  bright,  still 
day,  the  following  month,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the 
habitans  of  Green  Bay,  three  schooners  loaded  with 
troops  slowly  sailed  into  Fox  River  and  debarked 
their  uniformed  passengers  upon  the  strand. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Wisconsin, 
the  American  flag  fluttered  over  the  Green  Bay 
settlement,  and  when  the  drums  beat  the  reveille, 
and  the  bugle  sounded  taps  that  night,  the  Creoles 
sought  their  beds  in  sorrow,  for  the  dreaded 
Yankee  tyrants,  who  had  been  painted  to  them 
by  the  British  in  colors  black  indeed,  had  un- 
doubtedly come  to  stay.  The  new  arrivals  were  of 
the  Third  regiment  of  infantry,  under  Colonel  John 
Miller.  In  two  months'  time  they  had  reared  for 
themselves  upon  the  low  western  bank  of  the  river 


154        U'JSCOASJN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

stockaded  barracks,  and  styled  them  Fort  Howard, 
as  a  tribute  to  General  Benjamin  Howard,  builder 
of  Fort  Clark,  at  Peoria,  during  the  war  just 
ended. 

We  have  seen  that  in  Forts  Howard  and  Craw- 
ford, there  were  established  Government  trading 
posts ;  but  these  failed  of  their  purpose,  for  official 
factors  were  unable  to  give  credit,  and  without 
credit  the  Indian  hunters  could  not  exist.  The 
savages  were  improvident,  and  spent  what  they 
saved  as  quickly  as  they  received  their  pay,  hence 
when  the  hunting  season  opened  they  were  invari- 
ably without  provisions,  clothing  or  ammunition  for 
the  winter,  and  no  trader  could  hope  to  gain  their 
patronage  who  would  not  trust  them  with  a  liberal 
hand ;  *  the  prices  charged  for  goods  were  but  a 
secondary  consideration  with  them.  The  Govern- 
ment was  of  course  outbid  on  such  terms  as  these, 
by  the  private  traders,  whose  agents  were  scattered 
throughout  the  Indian  villages,  and  on  easy  terms 
with  their  inhabitants.  Then  again,  the  Indian 
felt  something  akin  to  contempt  for  a  political 
master  who  would  descend  to  keeping  a  trading 
shop,  and  haggling  over  the  prices  of  peltries  and 
cottf)ns.       The    fort    traders  were  in    time    driven 


•  Ordinarily,  the  Indian  luinters  were  trusted  by  tlie  traders  with  forty  or  fifty  dollars  in 
(joods,  cost  price,  at  the  opening  of  the  winter.  Exceptionally  expert  hunters  were  Riven  wider 
latitude,  some  of  them  ccttinR  as  hij;h  as  f.ioo  worth.  The  traders  expected  one  hundred  per 
cent,  profit,  and  thought  ihey  were  doing  well  if  they  collected  one  half  of  their  credits. 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        15^ 

from  the  market,  and  this  plan  of  courting  native 
favor  was  abandoned  as  impracticable. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  pause  for  a  while  and 
note  the  extent  and  character  of  the  Indian  trade 
in  Wisconsin  at  the  time.  We  have  seen  that  up  to 
the  close  of  the  War  of  18 12-15,  the  French  trader, 
whether  under  the  political  domination  of  France 
or  of  England,  was  in  full  possession  of  this  impor- 
tant field  of  commerce.  But  with  Astor,  there 
were  gradually  introduced  improved  methods,  and 
in  a  few  years  the  American  Fur  Company  had 
obtained  a  strong  hold  upon  the  country,  although 
the  great  corporation  could  never  rid  itself  of  the 
necessity  of  employing  the  Creole  and  mixed-blood 
voyageurs,  engages  and  interpreters,  and  was  obliged 
to  shape  its  policy  so  as  to  accommodate  these 
easy-going  subordinates. 

The  goods  used  in  the  trade  were  chiefly  coarse 
cloths  —  scarlet,  blue,  white,  green  and  yellow 
strouds  —  blankets,  cheap  jewelry,  wampum  beads, 
vermilion  paint,  myriad-hued  shawls,  handker- 
chiefs, ribbons  and  garterings,  sleigh-bells,  jew's- 
harps,  hand  looking-glasses,  combs,  scalping-knives, 
scissors,  kettles,  hoes,  gunpowder,  shot,  tobacco 
and  whisky ;  traffic  in  the  last-named  article  was 
forbidden,  but  it  was  impossible  to  prevent  the  in- 
troduction of  a  commodity  which  yielded  immense 
profits  to  the  trader,  and  was  eagerly  demanded  by 


156        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

the  Indians.  These  goods,  upon  arrival  at  Macki- 
naw, were  sent  out  by  canoes  and  bateaux  to  the 
different  posts,  where  they  were  either  dealt  out  to 
the  savages  direct  or  dispatched  to  the  winter 
camps  along  the  far-reaching  waterways. 

Returning  home  in  the  spring,  the  bucks  would 
set   their  squaws   and   children    at   making  maple- 
sugar  or  planting  corn,  water-melons,  potatoes  and 
squash,  while  they  themselves  either  dawdled  their 
timeawayor  hunted  for  summer  furs.    In  the  autumn, 
the  wild  rice  was  garnered   along  the  sloughs  and 
the  river  mouths,  and  the  straggling  field  crops  were 
gathered  in  — some  of  the  product  being  hidden  in 
skillfully-covered  pits,  as  a  reserve,  and  some  dried 
for  transportation  in   the  winter's  campaign.     The 
villagers  were  now  ready  to  depart  for  their  hunt- 
ing grounds,  often  hundreds  of  miles  away.     It  was 
then  that  the  trader  came  and  credits  were  wrangled 
over  and  extended,  each  side  endeavoring  to  drive 
a    sharp    bargain,  but  with   the  chances  generally 
in  favor  of  the  commercial  adventurer. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  individual  trader 
never  became  wealthy.  His  immediate  gains  often 
seemed  large,  but  the  credit  system  grew  in  extent 
until  at  last  the  risk  was  enormous  —  for  the  Indian 
sf)on  ceased  to  be  good  j)ay,  the  romancers  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding  —  and  the  monopolizing 
American     I''ur    Comjxany    managed    to   absorb   by 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.       1 57 

far  the  greater  part  of  the  profits  won  by  its 
subordinates. 

The  fur  trade  in  Wisconsin,  under  Astor,  was  in 
its  heyday  about  the  year  1820.  At  Green  Bay 
there  were  then  sixty  houses  and  some  five  hun- 
dred people,  in  addition  to  the  garrison.  A  crude 
sort  of  agriculture  was  practiced,  but  the  people 
were  mainly  employes  of  the  dozen  resident  traders. 
Of  these  latter,  an  English  Jew,  named  John 
Lawe,  was  the  heaviest  operator,  and  represented 
Astor's  company.  Lawe's  customers  were  the 
Menomonees,  and  his  posts  were  at  the  Indian 
villages  along  the  Menomonee,  Peshtigo,  Oconto 
and  other  rivers  flowing  into  Green  Bay,  while  he 
also  had  stations  on  the  Upper  Wolf.  There  were 
about  four  hundred  Menomonee  hunters,  and  they 
covered  the  region  extending  northward  to  the 
Chippewa  country,  west  to  Black  River,  and  south- 
ward along  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  to 
Milwaukee  River. 

Milwaukee  was  an  entrepot  for  the  Pottawa- 
tomie trade.  It  was  still  a  polyglot  village  and  on 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  Pottawatomie  claim. 
These  people  numbered  some  two  hundred  hunters, 
in  Wisconsin. 

At  the  Grand  Kakalin,  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Kaukauna,  Augustin  Grignon  had  a  sub- 
stantial loQ:-tradino-  shantv,  the  shell   of  which  can 


150        WISCONSIN  BECOMES   AMERICANIZED. 

still  be  seen  by  the  traveler  along  the  portage 
path  around  the  great  falls  of  the  Lower  Fox.  His 
trade  was  among  the  Menomonees,  but  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Grignon  family  were  up  the  Wisconsin 
River  with  the  Winnebagoes.  The  Porlier  and 
Grignon  families  were  united  at  Butte  des  Morts, 
a  Menomonee  station,  and  at  the  Fox-Wisconsin 
portage,  in  the  heart  of  the  Winnebago  country. 
The  Winnebagoes  hunted  around  Lake  Winnebago, 
up  the  Fox  River  to  its  source,  on  the  Wisconsin 
to  the  neighborhood  of  Stevens  Point,  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Rock  River — including  Lake  Kosh- 
konong  and  the  Madison  Lake  region  —  and  on  to 
the  northwest  as  far  as  Black  River,  where  they 
often  overlapped  the  Menomonee  grounds.  There 
were  also  a  few  Winnebagoes  along  the  shore  of 
the  Mississippi  River,  above  the  mouth  of  the 
Wisconsin. 

Prairie  du  Chien  was  a  shabby  French  settle- 
ment of  perhaps  eighty  buildings,  including  the 
fort,  a  population  of  five  hundred  and  a  garrison 
of  one  hundred.  The  people,  having  largely  come 
from  the  Illinois  and  St.  Louis  settlements  below, 
were  less  mixed  with  Indian  blood  than  their  com- 
patriots at  Green  Bay.  Joseph  Rolette  was  the 
chief  trader,  and  officiated  as  agent  for  the  Amer- 
ican Fur  Con-i])any,  his  ()])crations  extending  from 
Dubuque,   Iowa,  up  the   Mississippi   River  to  the 


WJSCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        I  59 

Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  and  up  the  St.  Peter's  to  its 
source  ;  he  was  also  engaged  on  the  Lower  Wis- 
consin and  Upper  Rock.  His  principal  patrons 
were  the  Sioux,  who  were  located  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  claimed  territory  in 
Wisconsin  as  far  as  the  falls  of  the  Black,  Chip- 
pewa, Red  Cedar  and  St.  Croix  Rivers. 

The  Chippewas,  at  this  period,  ^occupied  the 
northern  third  of  Wisconsin,  their  hunters  num- 
bering six  hundred.  The  territory  which  they 
ranged  over  was  reached  from  Lake  Superior  by 
four  rivers  —  the  Ontanagon,  Montreal,  Bad  and 
Bois  Brule  ;  and  from  the  headwaters  of  these  there 
were  frequent  and  easy  portages  to  the  streams 
flowing  southward  into  Lake  Michigan  and  the 
Mississippi.  Aside  from  the  distributing  station 
at  La  Pointe,  described  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
the  American  Fur  Company's  chief  post  in  the 
Chippewa  country  was  on  the  shores  of  Lac  du 
Flambeau,  with  auxiliary  posts  at  Lac  Chetac, 
Rice  Lake,  Tomahawk  Lake,  Lac  Court  Oreilles, 
Namekagon  Lake  and  other  favorite  points  of 
forest  rendezvous. 

The  Indian  trade  continued  to  be  the  chief  com- 
mercial interest  in  Wisconsin  until  about  1834, 
when  new  interests  had  arisen,  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  lead  mines  in  the  southwest,  and  the 
advent   of   agricultural   settlers  upon   the  close  of 


l6o        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

the  Black  Hawk  War.  It  is  important  to  note,  how- 
ever, that  "  the  fur  trade  became  the  pathfinder  for 
asfricultural  and  manufacturino-  civilization."  *  The 
traders  were  wont  to  select  commanding  sites,  often 
Indian  villages,  for  their  stations;  and  upon  sites 
thus  chosen,  either  by  the  aborigine  or  trader,  are 
to-day  situated  most  of  the  cities  and  leading  towns 
of  the  State  —  such,  for  example,  as  Milwaukee, 
Oshkosh,  Fond  du  Lac,  La  Crosse,  Eau  Claire, 
Chippewa  Falls,  Madison,  Sheboygan,  Manitowoc, 
Two  Rivers,  Kewaunee,  Green  Bay,  Prairie  du 
Chien,  Depere,  Kaukauna,  Neenah,  Hudson,  Por- 
tage, Menomonee,  Oconto,  Peshtigo,  Black  River 
Falls,  Rice  Lake,  Baraboo,  Shullsburg.  As  many 
of  the  trading  posts  were  on  portages,  where 
Indians  were  obliged  to  carry  their  craft  around 
falls  or  rapids,  the  future  water-powers  of  the  State 
soon  became  familiar  to  the  early  whites  ;  while 
across  such  portage  plains  as  those  at  Portage  and 
Sturgeon  Bay,  important  ship  canals  were  after- 
wards excavated.  The  network  of  Indian  trails, 
which  were  also  used  by  the  traders,  developed 
into  j)ublic  roads  when  American  settlers,  first  with 
saddle  horses  and  then  with  wagon  teams,  came 
to    occupy    the    country.     Thus    was     Wisconsin 


•  "  The  Kiir  Trnfle  in  Wisconsin,"  by  Prof.  F.  J.  Turner,  beinp  the  annual  address  de- 
livered before  the  Wisconsin  Ilislorlc.il  Society,  January  3,  iSSt;.  It  is  a  clear,  exhaustive 
analysis  of  the  character  aiitl  iufhn  luc  of  the  trade,  and  of  the  ulniosl  importance  to  writers 
on  this  phase  of  the  history  of   VVisconsin. 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.       16 1 

thoroughly  explored,  its  cities  and  highways 
located,  and  its  waterways  mapped  out,  by  the  early 
French,  long  before  the  inrush  of  agricultural 
colonists. 

It  was  quite  early  in  the  present  century  when 
the  rich  lead  mines  of  Dubuque,  Galena  and 
Southwestern  Wisconsin  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  nation  and  a  movement  began  which  hastened 
the  Anglo-Saxon  settlement  of  that  region  and  the 
downfall  of  the  fur  trader.  The  existence  of  the 
metal  had  been  known  to  the  Indians  Ions:  before  the 
first  French  explorers  appeared  on  the  scene,  but  it 
was  not  until  the  whites  introduced  fire-arms  and 
the  slauQ^hter  of  animals  for  the  fur  trade  besran, 
that  the  savages  understood  its  value.  Instructed 
by  the  early  French,  they  learned  to  rudely  mine 
and  smelt  the  ore,  and,  with  the  increased  demand, 
the  working  of  the  open  shafts  became  a  regular 
and  profitable  industry  with  the  Sacs  and  Foxes, 
who  were  jealous  of  the  intrusion  of  whites  in 
their  mining  district,  except  for  the  purposes  of 
trade.  Upon  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
in  the  lower  Galena  region,  privileged  French  and 
Spanish  miners,  especially  friendly  to  the  Indians, 
were  established  long  before  the  opening  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  St.  Louis  became  a  con- 
siderable market  for  the  commodity. 

In    1804,  as  we   have  seen,  the  lead  region  was 


1 62        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

acquired  by  purchase,  by  the  United  States,  and 
the  Sac  and  Fox  owners  for  the  most  part  moved 
out.  They  were  succeeded  in  Southwestern  Wis- 
consin by  the  gypsy  Winnebagoes,  who  squatted 
on  the  land  and  for  a  long  time  kept  whites  out  of 
the  country,  the  half-breeds  disposing  of  the  pro- 
duct of  the  mines  in  St.  Louis,  whither  it  was  sent 
in  canoes.  But  gradually  miners  from  Missouri 
and  Kentucky  —  some  of  the  latter  bringing  negro 
slaves  with  them  —  moved  into  the  country  and 
kept  the  Indians  and  their  intriguing  Canadian 
relatives  in  check.  It  was  in  1822  that  the  general 
government  took  charge  of  the  lead  mines  and 
began  granting  leases  to  the  operators,  which  sys- 
tem was  maintained  until  1847,  when  the  lands 
were  brouijht  into  the  market  and  sold. 

In  July,  1826,  there  were  but  one  hundred 
whites  at  work  in  the  Galena  and  Wisconsin 
diggings;  the  following  March  there  were  only 
two  hundred,  but  by  the  close  of  the  succeeding 
twelve  months  the  number  had  leaped  to  four 
hundred  and  six.  The  heaviest  immigration  set 
in,  in  1829.  The  new  town  of  Galena  was 
the  cntre])ot  of  the  region,  and  it  soon  had  a 
floating  population  of  many  thousands.  The 
rough  scenes  familiar  to  the  Rocky  Mountain 
iniiiini;  camps  of  a  later  ])eriod  were,  at  this  early 
time,  to  be  daily  witnessed  in  the  shanty  metropolis 


IVJ^CONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        163 

of  the  lead  region.  Speculation  ran  high  ;  gam- 
bling was  one  of  the  most  prevalent  vices;  the  old 
Indian  trails  from  Central  Illinois  were  transformed 
into  highways  for  Concord  coaches  and  lumber- 
wagon  expresses ;  men  poured  into  the  district  on 
foot  and  on  horseback,  by  river-boat  or  by  team, 
from  all  sections  of  the  East  and  West ;  in  a 
few  months  prospectors  were  picking  holes  all  over 
the  rough  hills  of  Southwestern  Wisconsin,  and 
soon  log  shanties  and  stockades  were  familiar  ob- 
jects in  the  landscape.  Men  worth  their  thousands 
bivouacked  in  the  foot-road  alongside  of  tramps  and 
vagabonds  of  every  grade ;  and  a  traveler  of  that 
day  tells  us  that  little  knots  of  desperate,  ragged 
fellows,  armed  to  the  teeth  and  playing  poker  on 
the  stumps  by  the  wayside,  were  to  be  met  with 
every  mile  or  so  upon  the  journey. 

The  Indians  could  not  withstand  this  army  of 
occupation.  The  newcomers  had  come  to  stay  at 
any  hazard,  and  were  prepared  to  fight  like  tigers 
for  their  claims.  Mushroom  towns  sprang  up 
all  over  the  district;  deep-worn  native  paths  be- 
came ore  roads  between  the  burrows  and  the  river 
landings ;  sink-holes  abandoned  by  the  Sacs  and 
Foxes  when  no  longer  to  be  operated  with  their 
crude  tools,  were  re-opened  and  found  to  be  excep- 
tionally rich,  while  new  diggings  and  smelting  fur- 
naces,   fitted    out    with    modern    appliances,   fairly 


1 64        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

dotted  the  map  of  the  country.  A  new  era  had 
opened  in  Wisconsin.  The  days  of  the  fur  trade 
were  numbered.     The  miner  held  the  region. 

A  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  the  In- 
dians of  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  had 
been  concluded  at  Prairie  du  Chien  in  August, 
1825,  at  which  the  general  government  was  repre- 
sented by  William  Clark  and  Lewis  Cass,  the 
former  then  serving  as  superintendent  of  Indian 
affairs  at  St.  Louis,  and  the  latter  as  governor  of 
Michio-an  Territory,  of  which  Wisconsin  was  at 
the  time  a  part.  Articles  which  were  signed  at  this 
council  prescribed  tribal  boundaries  and  provided 
for  a  general  peace  among  the  bands,  many  of 
which  had  long  been  pitted  against  each  other ; 
nevertheless  the  Indians  went  home  dissatisfied, 
and  the  peaceful  ends  sought  to  be  accomplished 
were  not  only  not  secured,  but  to  inter-tribal  hatred 
was  added  an  intensified  dislike  of  the  Americans. 
The  latter  were  adjudged  parsimonious,  because 
they  failed  to  load  the  chiefs  with  presents,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  British  on  such  occasions;  the 
land-iirabbim^  tendencies  of  the  Great  Father  at 
Washington  were  too  ])lainly  indicated  at  this,  as 
at  all  of  the  treaty  councils  ;  and  the  natives  did 
not  enjoy  the  unsym])athetic  formality  of  the  com- 
missioners, who  refused  to  allow  the  new  treaty  to 
be  ratified  by  a  savage  carousal. 


INIJIANS    ATTACKING    A    SliirKADF.. 


f 


U'/SCOXS/N  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        167 

After  a  winter  signalized  by  several  scalping 
raids  between  the  Chippewas  of  Wisconsin  and  the 
Sioux  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Winnebagoes 
and  Sioux  began  in  the  spring  of  1826  to  act  in  a 
sullen  manner  toward  the  whites  in  their  territory. 
This  unruly  conduct  was  the  immediate  result  of 
rumors  which  had  been  freely  circulated  in  the 
Northwest  woods  by  malicious  Frenchmen,  to  the 
effect  that  another  war  was  imminent  between 
the  United  States  and  England.  Early  in  the  sea- 
son, two  Winnebagoes  had  been  imprisoned  at 
Fort  Crawford  for  dishonest  practices,  a  proceeding 
which  increased  the  irritation.  The  summer  was 
filled  with  alarms  and  in  the  fall  there  were  rumors 
that  the  fort  was  to  be  attacked.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  these  troubles  that  all  of  a  sudden  there 
came  an  order  from  the  war  department  at  Wash- 
ington, ordering  Fort  Crawford  to  be  abandoned 
and  the  troops  withdrawn  to  Fort  Snelling,  far  up 
the  Mississippi  River,  near  where  St.  Paul  is  now 
situated.  The  command  was  obeyed  with  alacrity, 
for  it  came  as  the  result  of  the  importunities  of  the 
ofificer  in  charge,  Colonel  Snelling,  who  had  had 
personal  difficulties  with  the  people  of  Prairie  du 
Chien. 

It  may  be  well  imagined  that  the  Winnebagoes 
considered  this  untimely  abandonment  of  the 
fort  as  the  result  of  alarm   upon   the  part  of  the 


1 68        JV/SCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

whites,  and  an  acknowledgment  that  the  position 
was  untenable  in  the  event  of  an  Indian  uprising. 

The  succeeding  winter  there  were  numerous  for- 
est councils  amonor  the  Winnebao;oes  in  Western 
Wisconsin,  at  which  the  war  spirit  was  strung  to  a 
high  pitch  among  the  younger  men,  who  were  fully 
resolved  to  take  sides  with  the  friendly  British, 
should  the  promised  contest  break  out. 

In  March,  1827,  some  young  Winnebagoes  were 
hunting  upon  the  Yellow  River,  in  Iowa,  twelve 
miles  north  of  Prairie  du  Chien.  They  there  came 
across  the  log  cabin  of  a  half-breed  named  Methode, 
a  peaceable  fellow  from  Prairie  du  Chien,  who  was 
making  maple  sugar,  assisted  by  his  Vv^ife  and 
their  five  children.  The  entire  family  were  killed, 
scalped  and  burned  to  cinders,  by  the  marauding 
savages. 

The  popular  excitement  at  Prairie  du  Chien  over 
this  massacre  of  the  Mcthodes,  had  hardly  died 
away  when  a  delegation  of  Sioux  from  across  the 
Mississippi  arrived  in  the  village  of  Red  Bird,  a  petty 
Winnebago  chief  whose  town  was  on  Black  River, 
near  the  modern  village  of  Trempealeau.  These 
visitors  brought  word  that  the  two  Winnebago  pris- 
oners who  had  been  removed  from  Vovi  Crawford 
tf)  I-'ort  Snclling,  when  the  troo]xs  were  withdrawn, 
had  l)een  executed  by  the  commandant.  Red  I^)ird 
believed  tlie  falsehood,  and  was  (|uite  ready  to  ado])t 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES   AMERICANIZED.        1 69 

the  suggestion  of  the  Sioux,  —  that  vengeance  be 
at  once  taken.  The  old  Winnebago  blood-code 
was,  two  lives  for  one,  so  the  chief  at  once  set 
out  to  take  at  least  four  white  scalps  in  repri- 
sal, much  to  the  delight  of  the  trans- Mississippi 
delegates,  who,  having  private  enmities  against  the 
Americans,  were  using  the  deluded  Red  Bird  as  a 
cat's-paw. 

There  were,  however,  abundant  other  grievances 
on  the  part  of  the  Winnebagoes.  The  United 
States  ao;ent  at  Prairie  du  Chien  was  not  treatino; 
them  in  that  hospitable  spirit  which  they  thought 
proper  upon  the  part  of  the  representative  of  a 
great  nation,  and  stealthy  British  agents  were  still 
poisoning  their  minds  with  promises  of  better  times 
to  come;  the  whites  were  rapidly  over-running  their 
lead  mines  and  driving  them,  often  with  some  show 
of  brutality,  out  of  the  region  ;  a  hundred  petty 
incidents  tended  to  arouse  native  animosity,  and 
the  time  was  ripe  for  an  uprising. 

Affairs  were  in  this  condition,  when  two  keel- 
boats  passed  up  the  Mississippi  from  St.  Louis, 
laden  with  provisions  for  Fort  Snelling.  Some  of 
Red  Bird's  people  boarded  the  craft  and  sold  veni- 
son to  the  boatmen  ;  it  was  noticed  by  the  Indians 
that  the  crews  were  practically  unarmed,  neverthe- 
less they  did  not  venture  to  molest  them.  Twelve 
miles   above,    on    the   west   side,    the    noted    Sion\ 


I  70        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

chief,  Wabashaw,*  had  a  large  village,  occupying 
the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Winona,  Minnesota. 
Here  the  boats  were  again  boarded.  The  Sioux 
visitors  were  surly,  but  upon  being  sharply  ordered 
ashore,  left  without  ascertaining  the  defenseless 
condition  of  the  boats.  All  along  the  west  bank, 
to  the  fort,  the  Sioux  showed  marked  ill-will,  but 
the  provisions  finally  arrived  in  safety  at  their 
destination. 

Failing  to  get  scalps  here,  Red  Bird,  with  his 
friend  Wekau  (the  Sun)  and  two  others,  paddled 
down  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  bent  on  finding  victims 
there.  It  was  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  and  many 
of  the  men  of  the  settlement  were  away.  It  would 
have  been  easy  for  the  savages  to  have  openly  ac- 
complished their  ends,  but  the  Indian  nature  de- 
lights in  secret  methods  ;  so,  after  bullying  a  few  of 
the  women,  they  set  out  for  the  farm  of  Registre 
Gagnier,  two  miles  south  of  the  village,  at  the  foot 
of  the  prairie.  This  Gagnier  was  the  son  of  a 
negro  woman  and  a  French  voyagair ;  he  had  a 
white  wife,  two  children,  and  a  serving  man  named 
Lipcap.  The  poor  farmer  was  an  honest,  hard- 
working fellow,  especially  noted  for  his  humane 
treatment  of  Iiuliaiis,  but  this  reinitation  stood  him 
in  little  stead  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  when  the 


•  Son  and  successor  of  the  W.ihiisliiiw  who  served  in  \\w  I'.ritisli- Indian  cxpidition  against 
Si.  I.oiiis,  in  1780. 


WISCOiVSJN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        I  71 

merciless  code  of  vengeance  demanded  blood,  no 
matter  who  the  victim. 

Red  Bird  had  been  his  friend  for  years,  so  that 
when  the  four  agents  of  death  appeared  at  the  door 
of  the  mulatto's  cabin  they  were  invited  in,  the 
kettle  was  slung  over  the  open  fire-place  and  pipes 
were  produced.  For  hours  did  the  visitors  stay  and 
enjoy  the  good  man's  hospitality,  stealthily  waiting 
their  chance.  At  last  Red  Bird  and  Wekau  sud- 
denly leveled  their  guns,  and  Gagnier  and  Lipcap 
fell  dead  at  their  feet.  Madame  Gagnier  seized 
her  infant  of  eighteen  months  and  flew  to  a  window  ; 
but  Wekau  was  too  quick  for  her ;  the  child  was 
torn  from  her  grasp,  stabbed,  scalped  and  dashed 
to  the  floor  as  dead.  The  woman  herself  snatched 
a  gun,  and  when  Wekau  turned  to  attack  her,  pre- 
sented it  to  his  breast.  While  he  was  recovering 
his  self-possession  she  made  off  through  the  brush, 
in  company  with  her  little  ten-year-old  boy,  and 
reached  the  village  at  the  same  time  as  the  murder- 
ers. The  alarm  was  given,  but  the  Indians  sud- 
denly disappeared.  Later  in  the  day  the  villagers 
visited  the  scene  of  the  tragedy,  buried  Gagnier 
and  Lipcap,  and  brought  the  mangled  infant  back 
to  the  settlement.  Strange  to  say,  the  child  sur- 
vived its  brutal  treatment  and  grew  to  womanhood. 

Red  Bird  and  his  companions  had  secured  but 
three  of  the  four  scalps  desired,  though  according  to 


172        JVISCOASJN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

Indian  ethics  their  campaign  had  been  well  opened. 
It  was  in  high  glee  that  they  skulked  along  the 
bush-grown  shores  of  the  Mississippi,  and  when 
out  of  sight  of  the  village  again  took  to  their 
canoe,  which  they  had  hidden  in  a  rocky  cove. 
Thirty-seven  warriors  of  Red  Bird's  village  had 
meanwhile  encamped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bad  Ax 
River,  below  the  Black,  and  some  forty  miles  north 
of  Prairie  du  Chien.  Here,  upon  the  appearance 
of  the  murderers,  a  drunken  debauch  ensued  in 
celebration  of  the  event.  To  take  a  scalp,  no 
matter  with  what  exercise  of  treachery,  is  in 
itself  deemed  a  deed  of  valor  among  American 
aborigines,  and  the  acquisition  of  three  made  this 
thrice  a  victory. 

About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  third 
day,  while  the  Winnebago  revelers  were  engaged 
in  the  scalp  dance,  the  foremost  of  the  two  keel- 
boats  before  mentioned  hove  in  sight  on  its  return 
from  Fort  Snelling.  Both  boats  had  passed  Wa- 
bashaw's  village  at  Winona,  unharmed,  although 
tlic  Sioux  woke  the  echoes  with  war-whoops  and  ran 
along  shore  at  the  foot  of  the  bluffs,  fiercely  gesticu- 
lating. When,  therefore,  the  Winnebagoes  at  the 
liad  Ax  sliowed  fight,  the  crew  of  the  leading  craft 
were  not  alarmed,  and  in  a  sj)irit  of  bravado  ran 
the  hoal  towards  shore.  There  were  sixteen  men 
on    deck,  handling   the   sweeps,   and    all    were    well 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        173 

armed,  for  their  experience  in  going  up  stream  had 
taught  them  the  value  of  being  prepared  for  mis- 
chief upon  the  return. 

When  within  thirty  yards  of  the  shore,  the  boat- 
men were  greeted  by  the  ear-piercing  war-yelps  of 
the  Winnebagoes,  and  a  shower  of  rifle  balls  swept 
the  deck.  The  whites  rushed  below  and  shot 
through  the  portholes;  a  few  venturesome  Indians 
boarded  the  boat  and  ran  her  upon  a  sandbank, 
and  for  three  hours  a  spasmodic  fire  was  kept  up 
on  both  sides.  Dusk  now  setting  in,  five  brave 
fellows  in  the  crew  jumped  overboard  in  the  midst 
of  a  hot  bombardment  from  shore,  and  succeeded 
in  pushing  the  boat  off  the  bar.  By  dint  of  in- 
genious manipulation  of  the  sweeps,  from  below, 
the  well-riddled  hulk  was  directed  to  the  center  of 
the  river,  and  the  swift  current  soon  bore  her  from 
the  sight  of  the  disappointed  savages,  who  had  an- 
ticipated carrying  the  craft  by  assault,  under  cover 
of  the  night.  The  casualties  among  the  besieged 
were  slight,  when  the  fact  is  considered  that  nearly 
seven  hundred  bullets  had  pierced  the  boat  through 
and  through ;  the  loss  was  but  two  killed  outright, 
and  two  mortally  and  two  slightly  wounded.  Of 
the  Indians,  seven  were  killed  and  fourteen 
wounded.  At  midnight,  the  rear  keel-boat  passed 
the  native  camp,  and  was  fired  upon,  but  her  crew 
returned  the  volley  and  were  soon  out  of  range. 


174        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  boats  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  the  news  of  the  fierce  engagement  at  the 
Bad  Ax  spread  through  the  settlements.  One 
hundred  militiamen  came  up  from  Galena,  and 
others  poured  in  from  the  neighboring  lead  mines. 
The  Winnebagoes  were  everywhere  acting  suspi- 
ciously, and  the  rumor  spread  that  a  general  upris- 
ing was  planned.  Governor  Cass  proceeded  from 
Detroit  by  the  way  of  Green  Bay,  to  the  scene  of  the 
trouble  and  organized  the  defenses.  The  settlers 
strengthened  the  old  fort  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  A 
small  battalion  of  troops  finally  came  down  from 
Fort  Snelling,  General  Henry  Atkinson  hurried  to 
the  spot  with  a  full  regiment  from  Jefferson  Bar- 
racks, near  St.  Louis,  and  early  in  August  Major 
William  Whistler,  of  Fort  Howard,  proceeded  up 
the  Fox  with  a  portion  of  his  command. 

Whistler  tarried  for  a  time  at  Butte  des  Morts, 
where  a  council  was  held  with  the  Winnebagoes, 
Chippewas  and  Menomonees,  regarding  the  lands 
to  be  accorded  the  New  York  Indians,  of  whom 
mention  will  be  made  later.  At  this  council,  which 
was  concluded  on  the  eleventh  of  August,  the 
Winnebagoes  were  notified  that  the  security  of 
their  people  lay  in  the  surrender  of  Red  Bird  and 
Wckau  —  it  being  tacitly  understood  that  nothing 
further,  in  that  event,  would  be  done  by  the  general 
governnKiil   about    the   attack   on    tlie    keel -boats. 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        175 

Whistler  arrived  at  the  Fox-Wisconsin  portage  on 
the  first  of  September,  Atkinson  and  the  regulars 
meanwhile  slowly  moving  up  the  Wisconsin,  with 
the  intent  of  ultimately  joining  him.    • 

But  the  Winnebagoes  were  still  threatening. 
Consternation  among  the  Wisconsin  settlers  was 
widespread,  for  an  Indian  war  of  serious  pro- 
portions appeared  to  them  imminent,  and  the  lead 
mines  soon  lost  half  of  their  white  population. 
Whistler  fortified  his  camp  and  sent  out  runners 
among  the  disaffected  warriors,  advising  them  to 
deliver  up  the  murderers  or  the  tribe  would  be  at 
once  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Upon  the  day  after  Whistler's  arrival,  an  Indian 
emissary  notified  him  that  Red  Bird  and  Wekau 
had  decided  to  surrender  themselves,  in  order  to 
save  the  tribe,  and  would  be  at  headquarters  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  following  day. 
Prompt  to  the  hour  the  culprits  appeared  on  the 
portage  plain,  attired  in  full  savage  paraphernalia, 
accompanied  by  a  large  party  of  unarmed  friends, 
and  singing  their  death  songs.  Wekau  was  a  miser- 
able specimen  of  his  tribe,  but  Red  Bird  was  young, 
tall,  well-proportioned,  lofty  in  bearing  and  pictur- 
esquely clothed.  He  was  received  with  military 
honors  and  throughout  the  impressive  ceremony  of 
surrender  bore  himself  with  a  native  majesty  which 
won  for  him  the  admiration  of  the  entire  camp. 


1/6        JVJSCONS/N  BECOMES  AMERiCANlZED. 

It  must  be  remembered  tliat  the  young  chief  had 
not,  in  his  bloody  foray,  violated  the  ethical  code 
by  which  his  people  were  governed.  In  the  eyes 
of  himself  and  his  fellows,  it  was  an  heroic  act. 
His  surrender  was  in  no  sense  the  result  of  a  prick- 
ing conscience,  for  from  his  standpoint  he  had 
acted  as  the  avenger  of  his  tribe.  He  gave  him- 
self up  and  compelled  the  cowardly  Wekau  to  also 
surrender,  because  this  seemed  the  only  method  of 
saving  the  tribe  from  annihilation.  It  was  a  volun- 
tary performance  on  his  part,  and  as  such  possessed 
the  quality  of  heroism,  for  w^e  should  judge  his 
motives  solely  from  the  point  of  view  of  his  race, 
however  false  that  position.  He  bore  himself  as  a 
man  of  exquisite  courage  and  dignity,  for  he  felt 
that  he  freely  offered  himself  as  a  tribal  sacrifice. 
Red  Bird  had  but  one  request,  and  that  was,  not  to 
be  placed  in  irons ;  it  was  granted.  Upon  being 
taken  to  Prairie  du  Chien  for  imprisonment,  he 
afterwards  had  frequent  opportunities  to  escape ; 
but  having  given  his  word  to  remain  and  be  tried 
for  his  life,  he  never  took  advantage  of  them.  A 
few  months  later  he  died  in  prison  of  an  epidemic 
tlien  raging  in  tlie  settlement. 

Madame  Gagnier  was  granted  a  pension  by  the 
government.  As  for  the  murderers  of  Methode 
they  were  tried,  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death, 
l:)ut  I^T'sident  Adams  jiardoned  them  on  condition 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        177 

that  the  Winnebaofo  tribe  forever  renounce  its 
claims  to  the  lead  mines.  This  concession  upon 
the  part  of  the  Indians  was  followed,  in  1828,  by 
the  erection  of  Fort  Winnebago,  on  the  Fox-Wis- 
consin portage,  and  from  that  time  forward  the 
United  States  held  a  firm  hand  over  the  whole  of 
Wisconsin. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  removal  to  Wis- 
consin of  certain  bands  of  New  York  Indians. 
The  difificulties  which  these  Eastern  tribes  experi- 
enced in  their  attempt  to  find  homes  beyond  Lake 
Michigan,  cannot  be  stated  in  these  pages  in  detail, 
althouoh  the  recitation  would  make  an  interestinq- 
story  of  political  intrigue,  personal  ambition  and 
corporate  greed.  A  concern  called  the  Holland 
Land  Company  had  long  held  the  preemption 
right,  oflficially  confirmed  by  the  commonwealth,  of 
purchasing  from  the  Indians  of  Western  New  York 
the  lands  which  they  occupied,  whenever  the  natives 
cared  to  dispose  of  them.  In  18 10,  the  Ogden 
Land  Company  succeeded  to  this  privilege.  But 
acquirement  of  the  Indian  title  was  slow,  under 
ordinary  conditions,  and  the  company  began  se- 
cretly to  foster  a  spirit  of  discontent  among  the  red 
men.  Emigration  schemes  were  advanced  by  cer- 
tain of  the  leaders,  particularly  the  chiefs  of  the 
Stockbridge  and  Brothcrtown  tribes,  which  had 
some  generations  before  emigrated  to  New  York 


178        JVISCONS/N  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

from  New  England,  and  the  head  men  of  the 
Oneidas  and  Munsees,  who  were  to  the  manor 
born.  The  war  department  then  having  the  Indians 
in  charge,  soon  became  interested  in  the  movement, 
and  sent  out  an  agent  in  the  summer  of  1820,  to 
visit  the  Northwestern  tribes  and  ascertain  if  homes 
could  be  found  among  these  for  the  New  Yorkers. 
This  agent,  Dr.  Jedediah  Morse,  of  Connecticut, 
visited  Green  Bay  and  suggested  the  valley  of  the 
Lower  Fox  as  an  eligible  place.  While  in  Green 
Bay,  he  preached  the  first  Protestant  sermon  ever 
heard  there. 

There  was  among  the  Oneidas,  at  this  time, 
an  erratic  quarter-breed,  named  Eleazer  Williams, 
who  had  served  as  an  American  spy  among  the 
Canadian  Indians  during  the  War  of  181 2-15,  but 
who  was  now  an  Episcopalian  missionary  to  the 
St.  Regis  band.  He  was  a  born  intriguer,  and  fell 
into  this  emigration  scheme  with  enthusiasm.  His 
original  aim  was  said  to  be  the  establishment  of  an 
Indian  government  in  the  Green  Bay  country,  of 
which  he  should  be  dictator.  Thereafter,  we  find 
him  the  most  prominent  character  in  the  migra- 
tion of  the  New  York  Indians. 

The  owneis  of  the  soil  selected  by  Morse  and 
now  eagerly  sought  b\'  WiHiams  and  his  party,  were 
the  Menomoiices  and  the  Winnebaofoes.  A  council 
was  held  at  ( irccn   l)ay  in   1821,  at  which  Williams, 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        I  79 

by  dint  of  great  pertinacity,  overcame  tlie  natural 
reluctance  of  the  Wisconsin  Indians  and  secured 
the  grant  for  his  people  of  a  strip  five  miles  in  width, 
along  the  Lower  Fox,  for  the  most  part  east  of  the 
river.  But  this  was  not  enou2:h  for  the  intriguer's 
purpose,  so  in  1822  another  council  was  held. 

The  Winnebagoes  were  obstinate  and  withdrew, 
but  the  Menomonees  were  finally  wheedled  into 
granting  a  most  extraordinary  concession  :  making 
the  New  Yorkers  joint  owners  with  themselves,  of 
all  Menomonee  territory.  But  by  the  following 
year  the  Menomonees  had  repented  of  the  bargain, 
and  there  followed  ten  years  of  confusion  and 
wordy  turmoil,  during  which  Congress  was  fre- 
quently engaged  in  settling  the  difficulties.  At 
last,  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  October,  1832,  the 
affair  was  adjusted  with  at  least  a  show  of  mutual 
satisfaction,  and  a  considerable  number  of  the  New 
York  Indians  moved  into  Wisconsin  —  the  Stock- 
bridges  and  Brothertowns  settling  to  the  east  of 
Lake  Winnebago,  while  the  Oneidas  and  Munsees 
stationed  themselves  upon  Duck  Creek,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Lower  Fox. 

As  for  Williams,  baffled  in  his  political  purpose, 
and  having  won  the  contemptuous  regard  of  both 
whites  and  Indians,  he  suddenly  posed,  in  1853, 
as  Louis  the  Seventeenth,  hereditary  sovereign  of 
France.     It  had  always  been  supposed  that  soon 


I  So        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

after  Louis  the  Sixteenth  and  his  queen,  Marie 
Antoinette,  were  beheaded,  their  imbecile  son  of 
eight  years  had  died  in  the  Temple  Tower.  But  the 
claim  was  now  made  that  the  child  had  been  ab- 
ducted and  spirited  off  to  America,  and  that 
Eleazer  Williams,  despite  the  well-known  facts  of 
his  lineage,  was  the  veritable  dauphin.  The  claim 
was  not  only  seriously  discussed  in  the  American 
press,  but  aroused  attention  even  in  France.  One 
or  two  royalists  came  over  to  see  the  swarthy  In- 
dian missionary  at  the  Little  Kakalin,  whose  face 
bore  some  resemblance  to  the  Bourbon  type  of 
countenance,  but  left  disappointed.  Louis  Phil- 
ippe sent  him  a  present  of  some  finely-bound  books, 
believing  him  to  be  the  innocent  victim  of  a  delu- 
sion.  Williams  died  in  1858,  keeping  up  his  absurd 
pretensions  to  the  last. 

The  Black  Hawk  War,  in  1832,  was  an  epoch- 
making  event.  The  opening  of  the  lead  mines 
was  one  great  incentive  to  the  rapid  development 
of  Territorial  Wisconsin  ;  the  Black  Hawk  insurrec- 
tion was  the  other.  This  uprising  of  the  natives, 
so  potent  in  its  consequences,  was  the  outgrowth 
of  a  protracted  series  of  events,  which  can  be  but 
inadequately  set  forth  in  this  limited  space.  It  is 
))crhaps  sufficient  for  our  puri)osc  to  say  that  when 
in  1S04,  certain  of  the  Sac  and  r^)\  chiefs  purport- 
ing  to   be    rej)icsentativcs   of    their    united    tribes, 


I 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        l8l 

sold  their  title  in  the  lead  mines  to  the  general 
government,  certain  other  head-men  not  present  at 
the  council,  claimed  that  the  sale  was  not  author- 
ized. Among  the  opponents  of  the  treaty  was 
Black  Hawk,  a  Sac  leader,  then  twenty-seven  years 
of  age,  who  lived  with  his  followers  at  the  junction 
of  the  Rock  River  with  the  Mississippi,  the  site  of 
the  present  city  of  Rock  Island,  Illinois.  Black 
Hawk  was  a  fine  specimen  of  savage  humanity. 
He  was  not  a  chief,  he  was  but  the  leader  by  suffer- 
ance of  a  band  of  Sacs  who  were  opposed  to  the 
constituted  authorities.  These  malcontents  were 
so  friendly  to  the  English  marplots  who  had  long 
tempted  our  Northwestern  savages,  that  the  party 
was  always  popularly  known  as"  The  British  band," 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  majority,  which  was  gen- 
erally on  friendly  terms  with  the  Americans. 

There  was  in  the  treaty  of  1804  an  unfortunate 
clause,  to  the  effect  that,  "  As  long  as  the  lands  which 
are  now  ceded  to  the  United  States  remain  their  [the 
general  government's]  property,  the  Indians  belong- 
ing to  the  said  tribes  shall  enjoy  the  privilege  of  liv- 
ing or  hunting  upon  them."  In  other  words,  until 
the  lands  were  preempted  by  actual  settlers  the 
Indians  might  remain  upon  them.  All  of  the  Sacs 
and  Foxes  except  the  British  band  at  Rock  Island 
removed  at  an  early  day  to  the  west  side  of  the 
Mississippi,  but  Black  Hawk  continued  to  hold  his 


1 82        IVISCONSIiV  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

villao^e  on  the  east  side.  He  was  born  there.  The 
old-time  Sac  burying-ground  was  in  the  neighbor- 
hood; the  soil  was  rich  and  the  Hawk  appears  to 
have  become  attached,  with  all  the  sentimental 
ardor  of  an  unusually  patriotic  nature,  to  this  beau- 
tiful resting-place  of  his  ancestors.  He  was,  too, 
restless  and  ambitious,  and  not  disposed  to  bend  to 
the  will  of  the  tribal  chiefs — Keokuk,  Wapello, 
Morgan  and  the  rest  —  and  his  followers  were  ever 
arrayed  against  them  in  council.  He  was  a  warm 
admirer  of  his  British  "father,"  and  yearly  his 
blanketed  band  would  proceed  by  the  old,  deeply- 
worn  Sac  trail  across  Northern  Illinois  and  Southern 
Michigan  to  the  English  Indian  agency  at  Maiden, 
Canada,  to  return  laden  with  gifts  and  flattery.  He 
passionately  hated  the  Americans  because  they  an- 
noyed him,  because  marauders  of  our  nationality 
had  stolen  his  property,  because  he  had  once 
been  beaten  by  one  of  them,  because  they  were  in- 
truders on  the  domains  of  his  people,  because  his 
English  father  hated  them,  because  his  rivals  were 
their  friends. 

In  182^,  althou2:h  the  line  of  settlement  was  still 
fifty  or  sixty  miles  to  the  east,  the  whites  evinced  a 
covetous  desire  for  his  fertile  fields  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Ijcgan  to  s(|uat  there.  Tlic  newcomers, 
year  by  year,  robbed  their  Indian  neighbors,  de- 
stroyed   their    croi)S    and  l)urne(l   tlieir   permanent 


WJSCOAS/y  BECOMES  AMEKICANJZED.        183 

bark  lodges  every  time  the  villagers  were  absent 
upon  the  chase.  The  tribal  chiefs  advised  Black 
Hawk  to  leave  and  take  up  his  lot  with  them  across 
the  river.  But  the  obstinate  patriot  indignantly 
declined  and  proposed  to  stay  at  all  hazards.  Black 
Hawk,  like  Tecumseh,  had  a  prophet  friend  and 
adviser  —  a  shrewd,  crafty  fellow,  half  Winnebago 
and  half  Sac,  chief  of  a  village  some  thirty-five 
miles  up  the  Rock,  where  Prophetstown,  Illinois, 
now  is.  This  rascally  wizard  cultivated  the  vanity 
of  the  Hawk  and  made  him  believe  that  the  latter's 
power  could  not  be  overcome  by  the  Americans, 
and  that  in  due  time  the  Pottawatomies  of  North- 
eastern Illinois  and  Southeastern  Wisconsin,  and 
the  Winnebagoes  of  the  Rock  River  valley  and  the 
lead  mines,  would  come  to  his  assistance. 

When  the  British  band  returned  from  their  hunt 
in  the  spring  of  1830,  they  found  their  town  shat- 
tered, the  cemetery  plowed  over  and  the  whites 
more  abundant  than  ever.  Several  squatters,  who 
had  illegally  been  upon  the  land  for  seven  years 
and  caused  the  Indians  much  trouble,  had  finally 
preempted  the  village  site,  the  burial  place  and 
Black  Hawk's  favorite  planting  ground.  This  was 
a  trick  to  accord  with  the  letter,  but  to  violate  the 
spirit  of  the  treaty  of  1804,  for  a  belt  of  practically 
unoccupied  territory,  forty  miles  wide,  still  lay  to 
the  eastward.      The    Indians,  howlincf  with   ra<je,  at 


184      jviscon:sin  becomes  Americanized. 

once  took  the  trail  to  Maiden,  where  they  were 
liberally  treated  and  encouraged  to  rise  in  arms 
against  the  acquisitive  Americans. 

In  the  spring  of  183 1,  when  the  natives  had 
returned  to  their  old  home  after  a  gloomy  and 
profitless  winter's  hunt,  they  were  warned  away 
by  the  whites.  Black  Hawk  firmly  declined  to  go 
and  threatened  the  settlers  with  force  if  they  did 
not  themselves  remove  from  his  village.  This  was 
construed  into  a  "  bloody  menace,"  and  the  Illinois 
militia  were  at  once  called  out  by  a  flaming  execu- 
tive proclamation,  to  "repel  the  invasion  of  the 
British  band."  Sixteen  hundred  volunteers,  with 
ten  companies  of  United  States  troops,  made  a 
demonstration  before  Black  Hawk's  camp,  the 
twenty-fifth  of  June,  and  during  that  night  the 
unhappy  savages  paddled  across  the  river,  where 
they  signed  an  agreement  never  to  return  to  the 
east  side  without  the  express  permission  of  the 
United  States  government. 

Unfortunately  for  them,  they  failed  to  keep  this 
covenant.  The  intrigues  of  the  British,  aided  by 
the  mischievous  prophet  and  by  unauthorized  over- 
tures from  some  of  the  Winnebago  and  Pottawat- 
omie hot-heads,  resulted  in  Black  Hawk  casting 
l)ru(lence  to  the  winds.  His  people  had  lost  their 
chance  of  putting  in  a  croj),  and  the  succeeding 
winter's   hunt   proved   a  failure.     Starvation  stared 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICAN/ZED.        1S5 

them  in  the  face,  and  a  desperate  sally  was  decided 
upon,  in  the  vain  hope  that  the  United  States 
would  not  dare  to  persist  in  driving  them  away 
from   their  beloved  village. 

On  the  sixth  of  April,  Black  Hawk,  with  five 
hundred  warriors,  mostly  Sacs,  with  all  their 
women,  children  and  domestic  belongings,  re- 
crossed  the  Mississippi  and  passed  up  the  Rock 
to  the  prophet's  town.  Their  intention  was  to 
there  raise  a  crop  of  corn  and,  if  practicable,  to 
take  the  war-path  in  the  fall.  The  news  of  the 
"invasion"  spread  like  wildfire  throughout  the 
Illinois  and  Wisconsin  settlements.  The  governor 
of  Illinois  issued  another  fiery  proclamation,  sum- 
moning the  people  to  arms,  and  the  United  States 
was  called  on  to  send  an  army  to  help  quell  the 
uprising.  Some  of  the  settlers  fled  from  the 
country,  others  hastily  threw  up  rude  log  forts, 
and  everywhere  was  intense  excitement  and  prepa- 
ration for  bloody  strife. 

In  an  incredibly  short  time  three  hundred  regu- 
lar troops  under  General  Atkinson,  and  sixteen 
hundred  horse  and  two  hundred  foot  volunteers, 
were  on  the  march.*  Black  Hawk,  after  sending 
a  defiant  message  to  Atkinson,  retreated  up  Rock 
River,  making  a  stand  at  Stillman's  Creek.     Here 


*  Abraham  Lincdln  was  captain  of  an  intlependent  company  of  Illinois  rangers,  in  this 
levy;  Zachary  Taylor  was  a  colonel  of  regulars,  and  Jefferson  Davis  one  of  his  lieutenants. 


lS6         irJSCONS/A  BECOMES   AMERICANIZED. 

he  would  have  surrendered,  but  on  the  fourteenth 
of  May  the  drunken  pickets  of  the  advance  party 
of  whites  killed  his  messengers  of  peace.  Smart- 
ing for  revenge,  he  turned  and  swiftly  routed 
Stillman's  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  horsemen, 
with  a  mere  handful  of  thirty-five  braves  to  assist 
him.  The  cowardly  rangers  who  fled  at  the  first 
volley  of  the  savages,  without  returning  it,  were 
haunted  by  the  genius  of  fear,  and,  dashing  madly 
through  swamps  and  creeks,  did  not  stop  until 
they  reached  Dixon,  twenty-five  miles  away ;  while 
many  kept  on  at  a  keen  gallop  till  they  reached 
their  own  firesides,  fifty  or  more  miles  farther, 
carrying  the  absurd  report  that  Black  Hawk  and 
two  thousand  blood-thirsty  warriors  were  sweeping- 
Northern  Illinois  with  the  besom  of  destruction. 

The  w^ar  having  now  begun  in  earnest.  Black 
Hawk,  greatly  encouraged  and  rich  in  supplies 
captured  in  Stillman's  camp,  felt  impelled  to  carry 
it  forward  with  vigor.  Removing  liis  women  and 
children  io  the  swampy  fastnesses  of  Lake  Kosh- 
konong,  near  the  headwaters  of  the  Rock  River, 
in  Wisconsin,  he  thence  descended  with  his  braves 
into  N(jrthcrn  Illinois.  Tlie  pe()])le  flew  like  chick- 
ens to  cover,  on  the  warning  of  the  Hawk's  foray. 
There  was  consternation  throughout  the  entire 
West.  I^xaggcralcd  re])()rts  of  his  foix-es  and  the 
nnturt-   of    lii^   experlitioii    wcw   spi-ead    throughout 


JV /SCONS IN  BECOMES   AMERICANIZED.        1 87 

the  land.  His  name  became  coupled  with  stories  of 
savage  cunning  and  cruelty,  and  served  as  a  house- 
hold bugaboo,  the  country  over.  The  effect  on 
the  Illinois  militia  was  singular  enough,  consider- 
ing the  haste  they  had  made  to  take  the  field: 
they  instantly  disbanded. 

A  fresh  levy  was  soon  raised,  but  during  the 
hiatus  there  were  irregular  hostilities  all  along  the 
Illinois-Wisconsin  border,  in  which  Black  Hawk 
and  a  few  Winnebago  and  Pottawatomie  allies,* 
succeeded  in  making  life  miserable  enough  for  the 
settlers  and  miners.  The  most  notable  skirmishes 
were  at  Pecatonica,  Blue  Mounds  and  Sinsiniwa 
Mound,  in  Wisconsin ;  and  Apple  River,  Plum 
River,  Burr  Oak  Grove,  Kellogg's  Grove  and 
Davis's  Farm  (near  Ottawa),  in  Illinois.  At  Davis's 
Farm,  a  party  of  Pottawatomies  and  Sacs,  under 
the  notorious  renegade,  Mike  Girty,  captured  two 
white  girls,  Sylvia  and  Rachel  Hall,  and  it  cost  the 
Government  two  thousand  dollars  to  redeem  them 
from  the  Wisconsin  Winnebagoes,  in  whose  keep- 
ing they  had  been  placed.  In  these  border  strifes, 
fully  two  hundred  whites  and  nearly  as  many 
Indians  lost  their  lives,  and  there  were  numerous 
instances  of  romantic  heroism  on  the  part  of  the 
settlers,  men  and  women  alike. 


*  But  few  Pottawatomios  eiip;accecl  in  the  war,  and  they  were  young  hot-heads  anxious 
for  any  excuse  to  take  a  scalp  and  thus  enter  the  rank  of  warriors. 


1 88        WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

In  about  three  weeks  after  Stillman's  defeat  the 
reorganized  militia  took  the  field,  reinforced  by  the 
regulars  under  Atkinson.  Black  Hawk  was  forced 
to  fly  to  Lake  Koshkonong,  and  when  the  pursuit 
became  too  warm  he  hastily  withdrew  westward  to 
the  Wisconsin  River.  Closely  following  him  were 
a  brigade  of  Illinois  troopers  under  General  James 
D.  Henry  and  a  battalion  of  Wisconsin  lead-mine 
rangers  under  Major  Henry  Dodge,  afterwards  gov- 
ernor of  the  Territory. 

The  pursuers  came  up  with  the  natives  at  Prairie 
du  Sac.  Here  the  south  bank  of  the  Wisconsin  con- 
sists of  steep,  grassy  bluffs,  of  three  hundred  feet 
altitude,  hence  the  encounter  which  ensued  is 
known  in  history  as  the  Battle  of  Wisconsin 
Heights.  With  consummate  skill,  Black  Hawk 
made  a  stand  on  the  summit  of  the  heights,  and 
with  a  small  party  of  warriors  held  the  whites  in 
check  until  tlie  non-combatants  had  crossed  the 
broad  river  bottoms  below  and  gained  shelter  upon 
the  willow-grown  shore  opposite.  The  loss  on 
either  side  was  slight,  the  action  being  notable  only 
for  the  Sac  leader's  superior  management. 

During  the  night  the  i)assage  of  the  river  was 
fully  accomplished  by  the  fugitives.  A  large  party 
was  sent  down  streani  upon  a  raft  and  in  canoes 
begged  from  the  \\'iiinc])agoes ;  but  those  who  took 
this    method    of  t^scape    were    brutally    fired    upon 


WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED.        1 89 

near  the  mouth  of  the  river  by  a  detachment  from 
the  garrison  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  fifteen  killed 
in  cold  blood.  The  rest  of  the  pursued,  headed  by 
Black  Hawk  —  who  had  again  made  an  attempt  to 
surrender  his  forces  to  the  white  army,  but  failed 
for  the  want  of  a  competent  interpreter  —  pushed 
across  country,  guided  by  Winnebagoes,  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Bad  Ax,  where,  it  will  be  remembered, 
Red  Bird  had  attacked  the  keel-boats  five  years 
before. 

They  were  followed,  three  days  behind,  by  the 
united  army  of  regulars,  who  steadily  gained  on 
them.  The  country  between  the  Wisconsin  and 
the  Mississippi  is  rough  and  forbidding  in  char- 
acter ;  swamps  and  turbulent  rivers  are  freely 
interspersed  between  the  steep,  thickly-wooded 
hills.  The  uneven  pathway  was  strewn  with  the 
corpses  of  Sacs  who  had  died  of  wounds  and  star- 
vation, and  there  were  frequent  evidences  that  the 
fleeing  wretches  were  sustaining  life  on  the  bark 
of  trees  and  the  sparse  .flesh  of  their  fagged-out 
ponies. 

On  Wednesday,  the  first  of  August,  Black  Hawk 
and  his  now  sadly  depleted  and  almost  famished 
band  reached  the  Mississippi,  near  where  the  pict- 
uresque Bad  Ax  contributes  its  mite  to  the  rolling 
flood.  There  were  only  two  or  three  canoes  to  be 
had,  and   the  crossing  progressed   slowly  and  with 


igo        IVJSCOASIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

frequent  loss  of  life.     That  afternoon  a  government 
supply     steamer,    the     Warrior,    from     Prairie     du 
Chien,  appeared  on  the  scene.     The  Indians  a  third 
time   tried   to   surrender,  but   their  white  flag  was 
fired  at,  and   round   after  round   of  canister  swept 
the  camp.     The  next  day  the  troops  arrived  on  the 
heights  above  the  river  bench,  the   Warrior  again 
opened   its  attack,  and   thus,  caught  between   two 
galling    fires,   the   poor  savages   soon    succumbed. 
But  fifty  remained  alive  on  the  spot  to  be  taken 
prisoners.       Some    three    hundred    weaklings    had 
reached    the   opposite    shore    through    the    hail  of 
iron  and  lead.     Of    these  three  hundred   helpless, 
half-starved,    unarmed     non-combatants,    over    one 
half  were  slaughtered  by  Wabashaw's  Sioux  who 
had  been  sent  out   to  waylay  them.     So  that  out 
of    the    band  of    one    thousand    Indians   who    had 
crossed  the   Mississippi    in   April,  not    more    than 
one   hundred    and    fifty,  all    told,  lived   to  tell   the 
tragic    story   of    the    Black    Hawk    War  —  a    tale 
fraught  with  rlishonor  to  the  American  name. 

The  rest  can  soon  be  told.  The  Winnebago 
guerrillas,  who  had  played  fast  and  loose  during 
the  campaign,  delixered  to  the  whites  nt  Prairie  du 
Chien,  the  unfortunate  I)lack  Hawk,  who  had  fled 
from  the  ]»ad  Ax  to  seek  an  asylum  with  his  false 
friends.  The  proud  oKl  man,  shorn  of  all  his 
strength,  was  jjrescntcd    to   the   i^X'sident  at  Wash- 


JV/SCONSJN  BECOMES  AMERICAMZED.        I91 

ington,  forced  to  sign  articles  of  perpetual  peace 
and  then  turned  over  for  safe  keeping  to  Keokuk, 
his  hated  and  hating  rival.  Black  Hawk,  with 
all  his  racial  limitations,  had  in  his  character  a 
strength  and  manliness  of  fiber  that  was  most  re- 
markable, and  displayed  throughout  his  brief  cam- 
paign a  positive  genius  for  military  evolutions. 
He  may  be  safely  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting specimens  of  the  North  American  savage 
to  be  met  with  in  history. 

The  immediate  and  lasting  results  of  the  Black 
Hawk  War  were  not  only  the  humbling  of  the 
Indians  of  Wisconsin  and  Illinois,  but  the  wide 
advertising  of  the  country  through  which  the  con- 
test had  been  waged.  During  and  soon  after  the 
war,  the  newspapers  of  the  Eastern  States  wei'e 
filled  with  descriptions,  more  or  less  florid,  of  the 
scenic  charms  of  the  Rock  River  Valley,  the  groves 
and  prairies  on  every  hand,  the  park-like  district  of 
the  Four  Lakes,  the  Wisconsin-River  highlands 
and  the  picturesque  hills  and  almost  impenetrable 
forests  of  Western  Wisconsin.  Books  and  pam- 
phlets were  issued  from  the  press  by  the  score,  giv- 
ing accounts  of  the  newly-discovered  paradise,  and 
soon  a  tide  of  immigration  set  in  towards  Northern 
Illinois  and  Southern  Wiscc)nsin.  Then  neces- 
sarily followed,  in  short  season,  the  survey  and 
opening  to  sale  of  public  lands  heretofore  reserved, 


192         WISCONSIN  BECOMES  AMERICANIZED. 

and  the  purchase  of  what  hunting  grounds  were 
still  in  possession  of  Indian  tribes.  The  develop- 
ment of  Wisconsin  thus  received  a  sudden  and 
enormous  impetus,  so  that  when  it  was  divorced 
from  Michigan,  in  1836,  and  reared  into  an  inde- 
pendent Territory,  there  were  about  twelve  thou- 
sand whites  within  the  borders  of  the  nascent 
commonwealth,  and  many  of  the  sites  of  future 
cities  of  the  State  were  occupied  by  permanent 
aoricultural   settlers. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


TERRITORIAL     DAYS. 


NE  of  the  articles  of 
the  Ordinance  for  the 
government  of  the 
old  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, adopted  by  the 
Congress  of  the  Con- 
federation in  1787, 
and  confirmed  by  the 
United  States  Con- 
gress two  years  later, 
provided  that  the  great  Territor\'  should  be  even- 
tually cut  up  into  five  States:  three,  south  of  "an 
east  and  west  line  drawn  through  the  southerly 
bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan,"  and  the  other 
two  north  of  it.  When  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois 
came  to  be  staked  out,  each  succeeded,  upon  one 
pretext  or  another,  in  getting  Congress  to  violate 
this  article  of  division,  in  order  to  allow  them  to 
encroach  upon  the  country  north  of  the  famous 
"east  and  west  line,"  and  thcrebv  gain  harbors 
upon    the    Great    Lakes.      Ohio    thus   obtained    a 

193 


194  2'ERKITORIAL    DAYS. 

wedge-shaped  strip,  extending  westward  from  Mau- 
mee  Bay  along  her  northern  border,  and  averaging- 
six  miles  in  width.  When  Michigan  came  to  be 
formed,  there  was  a  deal  of  dissatisfaction  at  this 
trespass  on  the  part  of  Ohio,  and  the  Wolverines 
were  given  what  is  now  known  as  the  Upper 
Peninsula,  in  order  to  appease  them  —  this  rich 
tract  being  taken  from  what  belonged  to  the  future 
Wisconsin,  it  having  all  along  been  agreed  that 
Lake  Michigan  should  separate  the  two  northern 
States  when  they  came  to  be  erected.  Indiana 
was  allowed  a  strip  ten  miles  wide,  Michigan  not 
then  considering  the  territory  thus  taken  from  her 
as  worth  quarreling  over.  Illinois  was,  however, 
the  boldest  land-grabber.  In  1818,  Congress  gave 
her  an  additional  section  sixty-one  miles  wide, 
straight  along  her  north  line  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  the  Mississippi  River;  upon  this  splendid  tract 
of  eight  thousand  five  hundred  square  miles  of  rich 
agricultural  and  mining  land,  there  are  to-day 
planted  the  thriving  cities  of  Chicago,  Frecport, 
Rockford,  Waukegan,  Dixon,  Galena,  Elgin  and 
Evanston,  and  between  them  a  populous  and  pro- 
gressive rural  region.  Had  the  original  agreement 
been  carried  out,  this  (^ounlr)'  would  to-day  belong 
to  Wisconsin  instead  of  Illinois. 

The  old  Northwest  Tei-ritor)'  had  for  its  western 
boun(lar\'  the    Mississippi    River   to    its   source,  and 


TERRITORIAL    DAYS.  1 95 

thence  a  line  running  directly  north  to  the  inter- 
national boundary.  If  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of 
the  Ordinance  of  1787  had  been  carried  out,  Wis- 
consin, as  the  fifth  State  in  the  Territory,  would 
have  had  all  of  the  land  between  Lake  Michio-an 
and  the  Mississippi  —  a  grand  stretch  of  country, 
in  width  seven  hundred  miles  as  the  crow  flies,  be- 
tween the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods.  We  have  seen  how  she  was  despoiled  of 
the  Upper  Peninsula  by  Michigan,  and  of  an  enor- 
mous belt  to  the  south,  by  Illinois ;  afterwards,  in 
1848,  when  she  became  a  State,  Congress  took 
from  her,  to  give  to  Minnesota,  the  country  be- 
tween the  St.  Croix  River  and  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi, of  which  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Duluth 
are  to-day  the  leading  cities. 

When  the  Northwest  Territory  was  first  divided, 
in  1800,  what  is  now  W'isconsin  was  included  in 
Indiana  Territory,  and  thus  remained  until  1809, 
when  the  new  Territory  of  Illinois  took  her  under 
its  wing.  In  1818,  when  Illinois  became  a  State, 
Michigan  Territory  was  given  charge  of  the  coun- 
try west  of  Lake  Michigan  and  north  of  the  Illinois 
line.  In  1834,  there  was  added  to  Michigan  Ter- 
ritory, "for  temporary  purposes"  of  administration, 
the  country  extending  west  to  the  Missouri  and 
the  White  Earth  rivers,  so  that  now  Michigan 
extended  from  Detroit  wc^stward  to  a   point  eighty- 


196  TERRITORIAL   DAYS. 

five  miles  northwest  of  the  present  city  of  Bismarck, 
Dakota.  In  1S36,  Wisconsin  Territory  was  organ- 
ized, stretching  from  Lake  Michigan,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Michigan  Upper  Peninsula,  to 
the  extreme  western  limits  we  have  described.  In 
1838,  Congress  created  from  Wisconsin's  trans- 
Mississippi  country,  the  Territory  of  Iowa ;  and 
ten  years  later,  as  before  stated,  gave  to  the  new 
State  of  Minnesota  that  portion  of  Wisconsin 
lying  west  and  northwest  of  the  St.  Croix,  thus 
leavino-  the  Badoer  State  with  the  boundaries  now 
possessed  by  her  —  boundaries  quite  ample,  how- 
ever; for  though,  as  the  youngest  sister  in  the 
family  of  Northwest  commonwealths,  obliged  to 
take  what  was  left  after  the  others  had  been  satis- 
fied, she  still  has  a  territory  of  fift3'-four  thousand 
square  miles,  which  is  surpassed  only  by  the  fifty- 
six  thousand  of  Illinois  and  the  fifty-seven  thou- 
sand of  Michigan,  while  Ohio  boasts  of  but  forty 
thousand  and  Indiana  of  thirty-five  thousand. 

The  act  creating  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin  had 
long  been  incubating  in  Congress.  As  early  as 
1824,  James  Duane  Doty,  that  year  appointed 
United  States  circuit  judge  at  Green  Bay,  began 
an  agitation  looking  to  this  result,  his  first  propo- 
sition l)cing,  to  call  the  country  "  Chip])ewau." 
Afterwards,  in  1.S27,  we  fiud  lu'm,  not  at  all  dis- 
couraf>-efl  ovei"   the    failure   of   the   movement,  want- 


TERRITORIAL   DAYS.  197 

ing  to  call  the  region  "  Wiskonsin,"  in  honor  of  its 
principal  river — this  being  Judge  Doty's  phonetic 
rendering  of  the  old  French  "  Ouisconsin."  In 
1830  he  wanted  his  proposed  Territory  called 
"Huron,"  and  four  years  later  "Wisconsin"  was 
suggested.  This  last  title  was  adopted  by  Con- 
gress, and  after  many  trials  and  tribulations,  among 
which  was  a  quarrel  over  the  northeast  boundary, 
with  the  Michigan  people,  the  bill  passed  and  was 
approved  April  20,  1836,  taking  effect  the  fourth 
of  July  following. 

Henry  Dodge,  whom  President  Jackson  ap- 
pointed as  the  first  Territorial  governor,  had  been 
one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  lead-mines,  and 
was  in  command  of  the  Michigan  militia  west  of 
Lake  Michigan  during  the  Red  Bird  uprising  and 
the  Black  Hawk  War.  A  man  of  fine  physical  ap- 
pearance, prompt  action  and  pompous  manner,  he 
won  the  reputation  of  being  a  brave  and  dashino- 
partisan  leader,  instilling  fear  into  the  breasts  of 
the  Winnebagoes  over  whom  he  was  fond  of  domi- 
neering, and  fostering  emulation  among  the  pict- 
uresque band  of  free  rangers  whom  he  led  forth  to 
scouting  service  along  the  threatened  frontier. 
Dodge  was  deficient  in  early  education  and  was 
greatly  overestimated  by  the  majoritv  of  his  con- 
temporaries; nevertheless  he  discharged  his  various 
public  duties,   military   and    civil,   in    a    creditable 


igS  TERRI'IORIAL   DAYS. 

manner.  Upon  the  appointed  fourth  of  July,  the 
new  o-overnor,  together  with  his  civil  staff  and  the 
three  judges,  amid  noisy  public  rejoicing  took  the 
oath  of  office  at  Mineral  Point,  in  the  heart  of 
the  lead  region,  then  the  principal  settlement  of  the 
Territorj^ 

The  first  legislative  session  was  held  at  a  newly- 
platted  town  called  Belmont,  in  the  present  county  of 
Lafayette.  There  were  thirteen  members  in  the 
upper  house,  or  council,  and  twenty-six  in  the  house 
of  representatives  —  Henry  S.  Baird,  a  Green  Bay 
lawyer,  being  elected  president  of  the  council,  and 
Peter  H.  Engle,  of  Dubuque,  speaker  of  the  house. 
The  legislature  sat  in  a  story-and=a-half  frame  house, 
battlement-fronted  ;  the  highway  which  it  faced 
bristled  with  stumps,  while  lead-miners'  shafts  and 
prospectors'  holes  thickly  dimpled  the  shanty 
neighborhood. 

The  chief  business  of  the  session  was,  organ- 
izin"-  the  Territorial  administration,  dividing  the 
Territory  into  counties  and  establishing  county 
scats,  borrowing  money  with  which  to  run  the 
new  government,  incorporating  three  banks  —  at 
Dubuque,  Mineral  Point  and  Milwaukee,  all  of 
which  failed  and  involved  considerable  loss  to 
some  of  the  settlers  —  and  fixing  the  seat  of  Ter- 
ritorial   government. 

The  contest  over  the  location  of  the  capital  ]:)roved 


TERRITORIAL    DAYS.  1 99 

to  be  the  most  exciting  struggle  of  the  session,  and 
aroused  a  spirit  of  bitterness  which  was  felt  in 
legislative  circles  through  many  succeeding  years. 
A  month  was  spent  in  skirmishing,  during  which 
the  claims  of  Milwaukee,  Racine,  Koshkonong, 
Fond  du  Lac,  Green  Bay,  Madison,  Wisconsin- 
apolis,  Peru,  Wisconsin  City,  Portage,  Helena, 
Belmont,  Mineral  Point,  Platteville,  Cassville,  Belle- 
view  and  Dubuque  were  successively  urged.  Many 
of  these  towns  merely  existed  on  paper  and  in  the 
minds  of  real-estate  speculators.  A  wild  spirit  of 
town-site  rivalry  had  been  born  with  the  Territory, 
and  the  Eastern  markets  had  early  been  flooded 
with  prospectuses,  maps  and  "  bird's-eye  views  "  of 
"cities"  which  were  thoroughly  equipped,  in  these 
florid  descriptions  and  fanciful  pictures,  with  court- 
houses, jails,  hospitals,  schools  and  other  modern 
improvements. 

One  of  the  most  notable  of  these  "  boom  "  towns 
was  Kewaunee.  Here,  at  the  foot  of  the  bluff 
where  Kewaunee  River  empties  into  Lake  Mich- 
igan, an  unknown  explorer  thought  he  had  found 
gold  in  paying  quantity.  There  was  a  mad  scram- 
ble for  the  scene  of  the  discovery.  Such  men  as 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  who  in  after  years  became  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States,  and  John  Jacob  Astor, 
the  prince  of  fur  traders,  were  eager  purchasers  of 
real  estate  in   the   town   plat,  at   ridiculously  high 


200  TERRITORIAL    DAYS. 

fioures.  By  the  year  1836,  when  the  excitement 
was  at  its  height,  Kewaunee  aspired  to  rivalry 
with  Chicago.  But  there  was  not  enough  of  the 
precious  metal  to  pay  for  the  extraction,  the  bubble 
collapsed,  and  to-day  the  denizens  of  the  modest 
little  town  marvel  at  the  stories  the  pioneers  tell 
of  those  stirring  times  when  Kewaunee  was  deemed 
the  El  Dorado  of  the  Northwest. 

What  was  called  Madison  was  then  a  virgin  for- 
est situated  on  a  narrow  isthmus  between  Third 
and  Fourth  Lakes.  Under  the  tall  oaks,  the  rolling 
sward  lay  as  smooth  as  a  well-kept  lawn,  for  the 
annual  grass-fires  set  by  the  Indians  kept  the  un- 
derbrush down ;  the  center  of  the  isthmus  was  a 
pleasant,  undulating  valley,  and  the  high  ridges  on 
either  side  bathed  their  feet  in  the  blue'  waters  of 
the  lakes,  which  were  fringed  with  fragrant  red 
cedar  and  framed  in  pebbly  beaches.  While  of 
old  a  favorite  resort  for  Indians,  it  had  seldom 
l^een  contaminated  by  the  presence  of  the  fur 
trader,  and  when  Judge  Doty  selected  it  as  the 
place  for  the  capital  it  was  a  beauty-spot  known  to 
but  few  white  men. 

Doty,  it  will  be  remcmlx'rcd,  was  a  Michigan 
judge,  with  llie  country  west  of  Lake  Michigan  as 
his  circuit.  Wlien  Wisconsin  set  up  in  business 
for  itself,  he  was  legislated  out  of  ofifice.  Few  men 
knew    Wisconsin    fi'om    actual    travel    over    the   do- 


TERRITORIAL    DAYS.  20I 

main,  as  well  as  he,  and  it  had  long  been  his  secret 
hope  to  locate  a  city  between  these  sylvan  lakes. 
In  connection  with  Stevens  T.  Mason,  then  gov- 
ernor of  Michigan,  he  purchased  from  the  Govern- 
ment some  twelve  hundred  acres,  with  the  present 
capitol  park  as  the  center,  engaged  a  surveyor  to 
plat  a  city  there,  which  he  styled  Madison,  after  the 
ex-President,  and  was  on  hand  at  Belmont,  early  in 
the  session,  to  fight  for  the  proposed  town.  It 
has  been  asserted  that  choice  town  lots  were 
freely  distributed  among  members  and  those  sup- 
posed to  have  influence  with  them. 

There  was  no  lack  of  argument  in  favor  of  Madi- 
son ;  there  were  quite  important  reasons  why  it 
should  be  chosen,  aside  from  Doty's  urgency  and 
the  natural  beauty  of  the  Four  Lake  region.  Set- 
tlement was  heaviest  at  Green  Bay,  at  Milwaukee 
and  among  the  lead  mines.  The  conflicting  inter- 
ests of  these  three  sections  seemed  irreconcilable. 
The  selection  of  Madison  would  be  in  the  nature 
of  a  compromise  ;  then  again,  it  was  midway  be- 
tween the  great  water  highways  of  Lake  Michigan 
and  the  Mississippi  River,  and  to  locate  the  capital 
there  would  assist  in  developing  the  interior  of  the 
Territory  and  equalizing  settlement.  But  whatever 
arguments  were  the  most  cogent,  and  all  were  used, 
Madison  invariaJDly  succeeded  in  every  division  by 
a  close   vote,  in   withstanding  the  opposition,  and 


202  TERRITORIAL    DAYS. 

late  in  November  the  location  bill  passed.  It  was 
provided  that  until  the  capitol  provided  for  in  the 
act  was  finished,  the  legislature  should  convene  at 
Burlington,  now  in  the  State  of  Iowa. 

The  second  legislative  session,  at  Burlington, 
which  opened  November  6,  1837,  was  chiefly 
notable  for  the  passage  of  acts  establishing  the 
University  of  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin,  and  in- 
corporating the  Milwaukee  and  Rock  River  Canal 
Company.  To  aid  this  university,  Congress  was 
invited  to  appropriate  twenty  thousand  dollars  and 
two  townships  of  land.  The  money  was  not  given, 
but  the  land  was,  and  this  was  the  fundamental 
endowment  of  the  present  State  University  at 
Madison.  As  for  the  Canal  Company,  its  pros- 
pects were  based  upon  the  idea  that  the  Milwaukee 
and  Rock  rivers  could  be  united  by  a  canal,  along 
an  old  portage  trail  long  used  by  Indians  and 
fur  traders,  and  thus  an  easy  waterway  be  estab- 
lished between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi. 
By  Act  of  Congress,  approved  June  18,  1838,  a 
liberal  erant  of  land  was  made,  to  aid  in  the  con- 
struction  of  this  waterway.  But  the  grant  was  not 
judiciously  managed  ;  and  between  the  Territorial 
officers,  who  were  entrusted  with  the  disposition  of 
the  lands  and  their  proceeds,  tliere  grew  up  an  an- 
tagonism w'hicli  (lcvel()]K'd  into  political  wrangles 
wnA   j)ersonal   strife.      Litigation   ensued,  which   oc- 


TERRITORIAL   DAYS.  2 03 

cupied  the  courts  and  the  legislature,  off  and  on, 
until  1875,  when  the  tiresome  controversy  was  at 
last  closed.     The  canal  was  never  finished. 

Meanwhile,  a  clearing  had  been  made  in  the 
woods  at  Madison,  and  the  erection  of  the  Terri- 
torial capitol  commenced,  the  town  thus  far  consist- 
ing for  the  most  part  of  this  government  building 
of  stone,  and  a  few  rude  frame  and  log  houses  in 
the  immediate  neighborhood,  reared  for  the  board- 
ing of  the  builders.  The  infant  city  grew  slowly, 
as  the  result  of  the  necessities  of  the  occasion,  and 
it  was  long  before  the  place  had  taken  unto  itself 
corporate  pretensions.  Yet  Milwaukee  was  not 
much  larger.  When  the  legislature  convened  at 
Madison,  the  twenty-sixth  of  November,  1838,  it 
was  found  that  only  fifty  strangers  could  be  lodged 
there,  and  a  proposition  was  favored  to  adjourn  to 
Milwaukee.  But  as  the  lake-shore  metropolis  could 
do  no  better,  it  was  decided  to  stay  at  the  capital 
and  brave  it  out. 

Here  is  a  genial  picture  of  life  at  the  backwoods 
seat  of  government,  that  winter,  written  by  a  local 
chronicler:  * 

"  With  the  session  came  crowds  of  people.  The 
public  houses  were  literally  crammed  —  shake- 
downs  were  looked    upon   as    a  luxury,  and  lucky 

*  Robert  L.  Ream,  father  of  Vinnie  Ream-Hoxie,  the  sculptress.  The  I.itter  was  born 
in  the  old  log  tavern  here  mentioned  by  Mr.  Ream  —  the  first  dwelling  erected  at  the  Wisconsin 
capital. 


204  TERRITORIAL   DAYS. 

was  the  guest  considered  whose  good  fortune  it 
was  to  rest  his  weary  limbs  on  a  straw  or  hay 
mattress. 

"  We  had  then  no  theaters  or  any  places  of  amuse- 
ment, and  the  long  winter  evenings  were  spent 
in  playing  various  games  of  cards,  checkers  and 
backgammon.  Dancing  was  also  much  in  vogue. 
Colonel  James  Maxwell,  member  of  council  from 
Rock  and  Walworth,  was  very  gay,  and  discoursed 
sweet  music  on  the  flute,  and  Ben.  C.  Eastman, 
one  of  the  clerks,  was  an  expert  violinist.  They 
two  furnished  the  music  for  many  a  French  four, 
cotillon,  Virginia  reel  and  jig,  that  took  place  on 
the  puncheon  floors  of  the  old  log  cabins  form- 
ing the  Madison  House.  .  .  .  Want  of  ceremony, 
fine  dress,  classic  music  and  other  evidences  of 
present  society  life,  never  deterred  us  from  enjoy- 
ing ourselves  those  long  winter  evenings." 

This  was  long  before  railroads  had  reached  Wis- 
consin. Travel  through  the  new  Territory  was  by 
boat,  horseback  or  "  French  train."  *  There  were 
no  roads,  except  such  as  had  been  formed  from  the 
old  deep-worn  Indian  trails  which  interlaced  the 
face  of  the  country,  and  traces  of  which  can  still  be 
seen  in  many  portions  of  the  State.  For  the  erec- 
tion of  the  ca])itol,  it   had   been   necessary  to  trans- 


•  A  "  French  train  "  was  a  deep  box,  generally  six  feet  long  by  thirty-five  inches  broad, 
which  slipped  easily  on  the  surface  of  the  snow,  when  drawn  by  two  horses  tandem. 


TERRITORIAL    DAYS.  205 

port  saw-mill  machinery  and  other  heavy  materials 
from  the  Milwaukee  docks  overland  to  Madison, 
and  the  first  wagons  were  for  this  purpose  wheeled 
across  the  prairies  and  oak  openings  of  Southeast- 
ern Wisconsin ;  tlie  ancient  trail  between  the  Four 
Lakes  and  Lake  Michigan  was  followed  by  the 
pioneer  teamsters,  the  rivers  being  swum  by  the 
horses,  and  the  wagons  and  freight  taken  over  in 
sections,  in  Indian  canoes.  In  the  rugged  region 
of  the  southwest,  wagons  for  the  transportation  of 
smelted  ore  to  the  river  landings,  and  supplies  to 
the  "diggings,"  had  early  been  introduced.  Else- 
where in  Wisconsin,  there  were  as  yet  but  few 
wheeled  vehicles  and  no  stage  lines. 

Life  was  simple  in  those  early  Territorial  days. 
The  financial  crisis  of  1837  had  checked  immigra- 
tion in  the  West  for  a  time,  but  Wisconsin  capital 
was  chiefly  muscle  and  brain,  and  the  crash  among 
the  banks  did  not  seriously  affect  many  of  her  peo- 
ple. The  tide  of  humanity  soon  resumed  its 
normal  flow,  again  setting  strongly  towards  the 
land  of    the    Badgers.*     The    people    either  came 


*  In  early  lead-mining  days,  the  miners  from  Southern  Illinois  and  further  south  re- 
turned home  every  winter  and  came  back  to  the  diggings  in  the  spring,  thus  imitating  the 
migrations  of  the  fish  popularly  called  the  "sucker,"  in  the  Rock,  Illinois  and  other  south- 
flowing  rivers  of  the  region.  For  this  reason,  the  south-winterers  were  jocosely  called 
"  Suckers,"  and  Illinois  became  "The  Sucker  State."  On  the  other  hand,  miners  from  the 
Eastern  States  were  unable  to  return  home  every  winter  and  at  first  lived  in  rude  dug-outs  — 
burrowing  into  the  hillsides  after  the  fashion  of  the  badger  ( Texidea  americatia).  These  men 
were  the  first  permanent  settlers  in  the  mines  north  of  tlie  Illinois  line,  and  Wisconsin  thus 
became  dubbed  "The  Badger  State."  Contrary  to  general  belief,  the  badger  itself  is  not  fre- 
quently found  in  Wisconsin. 


2o6  TERRITORIAL   DAYS. 

overland  from  New  England  or  New  York  in  their 
own  rustic  conveyances,  or  took  boat  to  Detroit, 
Green  Bay  or  Milwaukee,  and  then  formed  caravans 
proceeding  into  the  interior. 

Accustomed,  for  the  most  part,  to  toiling  with 
their  hands,  and  unused  to  costly  living,  the  immi- 
grants took  kindly  to  the  privations  of  their  new 
surroundings  on  the  frontier.  Those  privations, 
simplifying  their  tastes  and  causing  them  to  look 
seriously  upon  the  affairs  of  hfe,  sharpened  their 
intellects  and  gave  to  their  children  a  heritage  of 
brawn  and  sober  purpose. 

Oftentimes,  the  Wisconsin  settler  was  fifty  or  a 
hundred  miles  from  a  grist  mill  or  a  town,  with 
nothing  but  an  Indian  trail  or  a  blazed  bridle-path 
through  the  forest,  connecting  him  with  his  base  of 
supplies.  Perhaps  his  only  excitement  was  the 
"  raising  bee,"  wherein  neighbors  for  scores  of  miles 
around  would  gather  to  help  the  latest  comer  rear 
his  log  house  or  barn  ;  or,  mayhaj:),  the  semi-annual 
trip  to  mill,  post-(jffice  and  "store."  Now  and  then, 
favored  ones  who  chanced  to  live  upon  the  trail, 
might  have  a  chance  to  house  the  gossipy  mail-car- 
rier over  night,  this  functionary  being  sometimes  a 
horseback  rider,  but  more  frequently  a  pedestrian, 
taking  regular  trips  which  few  would  wish  to  walk 
in  these  days:  between  (ireen  Bay  and  Portage, 
Green  P>ay  and  ("hiea^o,  Milwaukee  and  Prairie  du 


TERRITORIAL   DAYS.  207 

Chien,  and  the  like.*  To  be  upon  the  bank  of  a 
river  or  a  lake  where  one  of  these  great  trails 
crossed,  meant  an  opportunity  to  keep  a  ferry  and 
perhaps  make  a  few  shillings  from  the  entertain- 
ment of  chance  travelers.  But  these  were  excep- 
tional conditions.  The  average  pioneer  was  either 
closely  hemmed  about  by  gloomy  forests,  or  planted 
in  the  midst  of  a  lonely  sea  of  prairie  now  and  then 
broken  by  island  patches  of  scrub-oak  and  tangled 
hazel-brush. 

The  stock  of  food  brought  by  the  pioneers  was 
often  considerable  as  to  extent,  although  neces- 
sarily limited  as  to  variety  —  flour  and  salt  pork 
being  the  staples.  But  when  this  store  was  ex- 
hausted, it  was  often  difKicult  to  replenish  it,  and 
instances  of  suffering  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of 
life  were  not  rare.  The  rivers  and  numerous  lakes 
were,  however,  usually  well  stocked  with  excellent 
fish;  and  bear,  deer  and  wild  fowl  were  abundant  in 
the  earlier  years  of  settlement.  As  for  spiritual 
food,  it  was  freely  administered  by  itinerant  preach- 
ers, who  braved  rare  hardships  while  making  their 
missionary  circuits,  and  deserve  to  rank  among 
the  most  daring  of    the   pioneer  class.     Churches 

*  The  small  weekly  newspaper  at  Green  Bay  used  to  repeat  this  refrain  at  the  head  of  its 
columns  for  some  time  after  the  establishment,  in  1834,  of  the  first  mail  route  between  Green 
Bay  and  Chicago : 

"Three  times  a  week,  without  any  fail. 
At  four  o'clock  we  look  for  the  mail, 
Brouglit  with  disp.Ttcli  on  an  Indian  trail." 


2o8  TERRITORIAL    DAYS. 

and  schools  were  speedily  organized  in  communi- 
ties sufficiently  well  settled,  and  from  the  first 
Wisconsin  took  a  firm  stand  in  the  cause  of  secular 
and  religious  education. 

With  these  early  agricultural  colonists  there 
came  many  professional  men  and  men  of  affairs, 
for  the  most  part  young  and  ambitious  of  finding 
an  opening  in  the  new  Territory  for  the  making 
of  either  fame  or  wealth,  or  both.  There  were 
many  such  in  the  lead-mine  district,  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  in  the  Green  Bay  settlement  and  at  the 
new  town  of  Milwaukee.  Governor  Dodge,  at 
Dodgeville,  soon  became  a  conspicuous  character 
among  the  miners,  being  a  man  of  enterprise,  vigor 
and  daring;  Colonel  William  Stephen  Hamilton,  a 
son  of  the  famous  Alexander  Hamilton,  was  sta- 
tioned at  "Hamilton's  Diggings,"  now  Wiota  — 
a  strange,  roving  character,  who  made,  however,  a 
strong  favorable  impression  ujDon  his  fellows  in  the 
lead  reo-ion  ;  another  noted  miner,  who  at  the  same 
time  was  a  man  of  education,  was  John  H.  Roun- 
tree,  at  Platteville,  who  still  lives,  a  venerable  relic 
of  those  primitive  days  ;  among  the  early  lawyers 
of  the  mining  district,  Thomas  V.  lUn-nett,  Charles 
Dunn,  Moses  M.  Strong  and  Mortimer  M.  Jackson 
were  recognized  as  leading  spirits,  and  afterwards 
acfiuired  reputations  which  went  out  bcN'ond  the 
borders    of    the    commonwealth.       At    Green     Hay 


I 


TERRITORIAL   DAYS.  211 

there  was  a  considerable  coterie  of  bright  men, 
who  assisted  in  molding  the  State  —  of  whom 
Henry  S.  Baird,  James  Duane  Doty,  Morgan  L. 
Martin,  William  Dickinson  and  Ebenezer  Childs 
may  be  cited  as  examples  :  the  first  three  being  dis- 
tinguished in  law  and  politics,  and  the  others  in 
trade  and  manufactures.  At  Milwaukee  there  was 
Increase  A.  Lapham,  a  world-renowned  naturalist 
and  an  active  encourager  of  all  good  public  enter- 
prises. Alexander  Mitchell,  the  first  and  greatest 
Wisconsin  banker,  and  in  after  days  a  prominent 
railway  projector,  was  also  a  Milvvaukeean;  while 
Byron  Kilbourn  and  George  H.  Walker  were  fair 
representatives  of  the  business  men  who  stoutly 
aided  in  the  development  of  what  grew  to  be  the 
Wisconsin  metropolis.  At  Prairie  du  Chien,  the 
Brunsons  and  Dousmans  were  types  of  pioneers 
who  figured  prominently  in  the  domains  of  the 
pulpit,  the  bar  or  the  counting-room. 

In  Territorial  times  the  sessions  of  the  leQ:isla- 
ture  at  Madison  were  the  events  of  the  year,  and 
attracted  prominent  men  from  all  quarters  of 
Wisconsin.  The  crude  hotels  were  filled  each 
winter  with  legislators,  lobbyists  and  visiting  poli- 
ticians, and  old  settlers  delight  to  rehearse  the 
tales  of  what  was  done  and  said  at  these  annual 
Q^atherinfrs  of  the  clans. 

The    humors   of    the    dav   were    often    uncouth. 


212  TERRITORIAL   DAYS. 

There  was  a  deal  of  horse-play,  hard-drinking  and 
profanity,  and  occasionally  a  personal  encounter 
during  the  heat  of  discussion  ;  but  an  under-current 
of  good-nature  was  generally  observable,  and  strong 
attachments  between  leading  men  were  more  fre- 
quently noticeable  than  persistent  feuds.  Dancing 
and  miscellaneous  merry-making  were  quite  the 
order  of  the  times,  and  although  there  was  a  dearth 
of  womenkind  in  these  Madison  seasons,  society  at 
the  capital  was  thought  to  be  fashionable.  Even 
when  the  legislature  was  not  in  session,  Madison 
remained  the  social  and  political  center  of  the 
Territory,  and  travelers  between  the  outlying  set- 
tlements on  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi,  and  Lake 
Michigan  or  Green  Bay,  were  wont  to  relish  tarry- 
ing there  upon  their  way;  several  have  left  us  in 
journals  and  letters  pleasing  descriptions  of  their 
reception  by  the  good-hearted  inhabitants  and  the 
impressions  made  on  them  by  the  natural  attrac- 
tions of  this  Wisconsin  beauty-spot. 

The  old  Tc-rritorial  legislature  had  much  to  do, 
winter  by  wintc-r,  in  the  carving  out  of  new  coun- 
ties ;  the  statutory  laws  required  molding  in  de- 
tail ;  there  were  political  apportionments  to  make 
aft(,M"  each  new  census,  in  a  domain  which  was  rap- 
idly filling  up  with  a  roliust  American  population, 
and  iIktc  were  now  and  then  imforlunate  c|uarre]s 
with    tlic    Tcn-ilorial    ''"oxcnior.      As    a  whole,   the 


TERRITORIAL   DAYS.  21  3 

quality  of  legislation  was  good,  and  there  prevailed 
a  healthy  political  tone,  although  there  were  now 
and  then  times  when  personal  acrimony  and  parti- 
san prejudice  appeared  uppermost  factors ;  and  the 
political  pessimist  might  have  found  much  to  con- 
firm his  forebodings,  in  the  published  reports  of 
the  sessions. 

One  unfortunate  affair  occurred  during  the  ses- 
sion of  1841-42,  which  cast  a  deep  gloom  over  the 
community  and  gained  for  Wisconsin  an  unenvia- 
ble notoriety.  In  September,  1841,  Dodge  was  re- 
moved from  the  governorship  by  President  Tyler, 
and  in  his  place  was  appointed  Judge  Doty.  The 
new  governor  at  once  antagonized  the  legislature 
in  his  message  upon  opening  the  session  early  in 
December,  by  the  assertion  that  no  law  of  the  Ter- 
ritory was  effective  until  expressly  approved  by 
Congress.  Over  this  unwarranted  construction  of 
the  organic  act,  there  followed  a  wordy  dispute  in 
which  the  governor  was  undoubtedly  worsted.  One 
of  the  results  of  these  strained  relations  was,  that  a 
motion  was  made  in  the  council  to  table  the  grov- 
ernor's  nomination  of  one  Baker  to  be  sheriff  of 
Grant  County.  On  the  eleventh  of  February,  the 
debate  on  this  motion  led  to  a  personal  altercation 
between  two  of  the  councilors  —  Charles  C.  P. 
Arndt,  of  Brown  County,  and  James  R.  Vineyard  of 
Grant  County.      Upon  the  adjournment  of  the  coun- 


2  14  TERRITORIAL    DAYS. 

cil,  these  men,  whom  friends  had  separated  during 
the  sitting,  again  met  in  one  of  the  aisles,  and 
Arndt  having  struck  at  Vineyard,  the  latter  drew  a 
pistol  and  shot  his  adversary  dead.  Vineyard  sur- 
rendered to  the  sheriff  of  Dane  County,  in  which 
Madison  is  situated,  and  from  his  cell  sent  in  his 
resienation  as  member  of  the  council.  But  that 
body  declined  to  receive  the  paper  or  even  allow  it 
to  be  read,  and  promptly  expelled  the  member  from 
Grant.  Vineyard  was  subsequently  tried  for  man- 
slaughter, and  acquitted. 

The  news  of  this  murderous  quarrel  within  the 
very  chamber  of  the  Wisconsin  Senate,  at  once 
spread  throughout  the  country,  and  the  newspapers 
of  the  day  reported  the  affair  in  detail.  Charles 
Dickens,  the  famous  English  author,  was  just  then 
making  his  first  tour  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
Wisconsin  tragedy  was  cited  in  his  American  Notes 
as  an  instance  of  the  tendency  of  public  life  in  the 
wild  West.  The  great  Englishman,  however,  was 
too  apt  to  view  as  tendencies  what  were  but  iso- 
lated instances  of  ]:)ionccr  barbarism  in  America. 
The  Arndt-Vineyard  affair  remains  to  this  day  as 
by  far  the  most  painful  incident  in  the  legislative 
records  of  Wisconsin. 

( Governor  I  )()ty  was  a  man  of  eminent  ability, 
.-uid  the  most  |)r()minL'nt  citizen  of  Wisconsin, 
(luring   'lY-rriloi-ial    days.      luil    lie   was  aggressive, 


TERR  I  TO  RIAL    DAYS.  215 

and  impulse  and  passion  often  blinded  his  judg- 
ment. It  was  partly  owing  to  this  unfortunate 
temperament,  in  part  to  certain  minor  complica- 
tions in  Wisconsin  politics,  and  in  a  measure  to  the 
boundary  disputes  with  the  national  government 
then  pending,  that  his  administration  of  three  years 
was  the  stormiest  in  the  history  of  the  Territory. 

We  have  already  seen  how  and  why  Wisconsin, 
as  the  fifth  and  last  State  to  be  formed  out  of  the 
old  Northwest  Territory,  was  shorn  of  the  Upper 
Peninsula  by  Michigan,  and  by  a  sixty-one-mile-wide 
strip  along  her  southern  border,  by  Illinois.  There 
were,  however,  some  incidents  of  these  boundary 
quarrels  with  Congress  and  her  two  neighbors,  de- 
serving of  especial  mention  here.  Both  Governors 
Dodge  and  Doty  vigorously  asserted  the  "  ancient  " 
Territorial  rights  of  Wisconsin,  both  as  to  Michigan 
and  Illinois;  they  did  a  great  deal  of  "demanding," 
and  issued  many  mysterious  threats  of  what  Wis- 
consin would  do  in  case  her  "  birthright  "  was  not 
acknowledged.  Committees  of  the  Territorial  leg- 
islature, to  whom  the  boundary  messages  of  these 
governors  was  referred,  adopted  the  same  defiant 
attitude. 

The  southern  boundary  remained  for  years  a 
particular  bone  of  contention  between  Wisconsin 
and  Illinois.  Dodge  worked  himself  into  a  very 
belligerent  spirit   over  it,  in    1839  and    1840.      He 


2l6  TERRITORIAL    DAYS. 

ordered  certain  Illinois  land  commissioners  out  of 
the  disputed  tract;  had  popular  elections  held  in 
the  fourteen  northern  counties  of  Illinois  to  decide 
upon  the  question  of  jurisdiction,  in  which  elections 
Wisconsin,  curiously  enough,  carried  the  day  ;  he 
instigated  conventions  of  Northern  Illinois  people 
who  wanted  to  join  Wisconsin,  and  altogether  made 
it  as  uncomfortable  as  possible  for  the  "  Sucker " 
authorities  stationed  near  the  Wisconsin  border. 

But  the  Territorial  legislature  of  1843-44  f'^^ii'ly 
distinguished  itself  in  this  protracted  controversy. 
Under  Doty's  lead,  it  adopted  on  the  thirteenth 
of  December,  1S43,  a  series  of  resolutions  which 
practically  amounted  to  a  declaration  of  secession. 
These  resolutions  declared  that  the  United  States 
had  "infringed"  —  mark  the  use  of  this  term 
"  infringed  "  — on  the  boundaries  of  the  fifth  State 
in  the  Northwest  Territory,  but  that  Wisconsin 
would  pocket  the  insult  if  the  general  government 
would :  • 


1.  Construct  a  railroad  system  between   Lake  Michigan  and  the  Missis- 
sippi. 

2.  Ini|)rovc    the    F(jx    and    Wisconsin   rivers   so   as    to   make   a  iiational 
waterway  Iictwcen  the  Clrcat  Lakes  and  the  great  river. 

3.  Connect  the  Fox  and  Rock  rivers  by  a  canal. 

4.  Construct   harbors  on   the  west  shore  of   Lake   Michigan  at   Southport 
(Kenosha),  Racine,  Milwaid<ce,  .Sank  Ilarboi,  Siicboygan  and  Manitowoc. 


/\ii  arldicss  to  ("()iiL;r(.'SS  arcompaiiied  tliis  report. 
I'rnlj.ihly  no  .State  c\'ci"  adopted  a  nioi'c  Ijclligerent 


TERR ITOK  AL   DAYS.  2\J 

attitude  towards  Congress  than  did  Wisconsin  in 
this  remarkable  document,  which  reads  more  Hke 
an  emanation  froni  an  old-time  South  Carolina  les- 
islature  than  the  sober  judgment  of  a  community 
which  was  among  the  foremost,  less  than  twenty 
years  later,  in  putting  down  by  force  of  arms  the 
rebellion  which  was  but  the  logical  sequence  of  the 
doctrines  which  this  address  advocated. 

After  pointing  out  to  Congress  the  internal  im- 
provements which  Wisconsin  would  take  as  a  balm 
for  her  injured  sensibilities,  the  legislature  declared 
that  if  Cono^ress  did  not  accede  to  these  terms  and 
would  not  admit  Wisconsin  to  the  Union  with  her 
ancient  boundaries,  she  "would  be  a  State  out  of 
the  Union,  and  possess,  exercise  and  enjoy  all  the 
rights,  privileges  and  powers  of  the  sovereign,  inde- 
pendent State  of  Wisconsin,  and  if  difficulties  must 
ensue,  we  could  appeal  with  confidence  to  the 
Great  Umpire  of  nations  to  adjust  them."  "  The  un- 
authorized action  of  the  fjeneral  Q-overnment "  was 
sharply  alluded  to;  Congress  was  given  warning  in 
plain  terms  that  "  the  integrity  of  Wisconsin's 
boundaries  must  be  observed,"  and  that  if  peace- 
able means  failed,  she  would,  "  whatever  may  be 
sacrificed,"  resort  to  "every  other  means  in  her 
power."  The  address  closed  with  a  call  on  Con- 
gress to  "do  justice,  while  yet  it  is  not  too  late,  to 
a  people  who  have  hitherto  been  weak  and   unpro. 


2l8  TERRITORIAL    DAYS. 

tected,  but  who  are  rapidly  rising  to  giant  greatness, 
and  who,  at  no  distant  day,  will  show  to  the  world 
that  they  lack  neither  the  disposition  nor  the 
ability  to  protect  themselves." 

There  is  much  literature  of  a  similarly  startling 
character  hid  away  in  the  dry  and  dusty  journals 
of  the  Wisconsin  legislature,  covering  this  epoch. 
These  words  of  the  fathers  of  Wisconsin,  only  forty- 
six  years  ago,  are  strange  reading  indeed,  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  events.  Imagine  Dakota  or 
Utah  talkino-  in  this  fashion  to  the  fiftieth  Consjress  ! 
It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  Congress  of  1844  paid 
no  attention  whatever  to  the  war  talk  from  Wiscon- 
sin, which  regained  none  of  its  territory ;  nor,  until 
long  after,  did  she  secure  any  of  the  internal  im- 
provements which  she  had  so  imperiously  demanded. 

The  year  1839  is  notable  for  witnessing  the  com- 
mencement of  "  Mitchell's  bank,"  from  the  first  an 
important  factor  in  the  history  of  finance  in  Wis- 
consin. Early  in  the  year,  George  Smith  of  Chi- 
cago, and  Daniel  Wells  of  Milwaukee,  obtained 
from  the  le^iislature  a  charter  cnablinir  the  Wiscon- 
sin  Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  Com})any  to  do  a 
general  insuring  and  loaning  business.  It  was  a 
time  when  the  name  "  bank  "  was  excessively  un- 
popular, esj:)eciall\'  in  llu'  West,  the  C()untr\'  being 
filled  with  institutions  thus  entitled,  which  were 
issuinLT   "wildest"  bills   and    (l(»iii<>    a   I'eekless   and 


TERRITORIAL   DAYS.  219 

disreputable  business.  The  Smith  and  Wells 
charter  went  on  to  specify  what  the  new  insurance 
company  might  do,  which  specifications  covertly 
included  all  that  a  legitimate  bank  would  wish  to 
do  ;  yet  in  deference  to  the  popular  prejudice,  it  was 
with  unconscious  humor  expressly  stipulated  that 
"  nothing  herein  contained  shall  give  banking 
privileges." 

A  recently-imported  young  banker  from  Aber- 
deen, Scotland,  named  Alexander  Mitchell,  was 
given  the  secretaryship  of  the  institution,  which 
opened  its  doors  in  Milwaukee.  At  once,  Mitchell, 
though  commencing  upon  a  small  salary,  became 
the  life  of  the  concern,  which  soon  began  to  do  a 
thriving  business  in  assisting  colonists  to  take  up 
government  land,  and  in  issuing  certificates  of  de- 
posit. The  latter,  in  the  general  scarcity  of  repu- 
table currency,  came  into  wide  use  as  a  circulating 
medium.  They  were  invariably  paid  on  presenta- 
tion, a  remarkable  circumstance  in  those  days  of 
rotten  banking.  At  one  time  Mitchell  had  out 
over  a  million  and  a  half  dollars'  worth  of  this 
paper,  the  integrity  of  which  rested  simply  on  his 
promise  to  pay. 

The  business  was  managed  with  consummate  skill, 
and  "  Mitchell's  bank,"  although  nominally  but  an 
insurance  company  and  without  legal  authority  to 
do    banking,   attained    a    national    reputation    and 


2  20  TERRITORIAL   DAYS. 

proved  a  rare  boon  to  the  people  of  the  entire 
Northwest,  being  the  only  financial  concern  of 
that  region  which  stood  the  pressure  of  the  times 
and  maintained  its  integrity  without  a  flaw. 

Mitchell,  who  became  in  a  few  years  the  propri- 
etor as  well  as  the  manager  of  the  enterprise,  was 
no  less  a  legislative  lobbyist  than  a  financier.  The 
leo-islature  was  frequently  importuned  by  his  jealous 
rivals  to  check  him  in  his  prosperous,  although 
somewhat  lawless,  career,  and  his  time  was  divided 
between  handling  the  law-makers  and  attending  to 
his  legitimate  business.  In  1845,  his  franchise 
was  annulled,  and  thereafter  he  was  continually  in 
hot  water  with  the  legislature.  But  when  stopped 
at  Milwaukee,  he  invariably  paid  his  notes  in  Chi- 
cago, Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  Detroit  and  elsewhere, 
and  not  for  a  moment  was  "  Mitchell's  bank " 
ever  closed.  These  legislative  struggles  mate- 
rially helped  liim  by  advertising  his  bank  and  by 
cultivating  for  him  the  pojuilar  sympathy — his 
certificates  being  always  regarded  "  as  good  as 
gold" — and  after  a  time  the  Territorial  govern- 
ment itself  was  obliged  to  borrow  money  from  him 
to  meet  its  current  expenses,  and  paid  him  ten  per 
cent,  for  the  accommodation.  Mnally,  in  1852, 
when  a  general  free-banking  act  was  passed, 
Mitchell  (ailed  in  his  certificates,  on  which  he 
paid    ddllai-    for    dollar    in     ''old,    and    addini;'    the 


TERRITORIAL    DAYS.  22  1 

word  "  Bank "  to  his  insurance  title,  started  the 
first  recjular  bank  in  Milwaukee.  It  lono-  remained 
a  rock  amid  the  turbulent  sea  of  wild-cat  banking, 
which  lasted  for  several  years  after  that,  and  to  this 
day  "  Mitchell's  bank  "  is  one  of  the  stoutest  finan- 
cial institutions  in  the  United  States. 

The  reformation  of  society  was  not  usually  the 
"  fad  "  of  early  Western  pioneers.  A  people  whose 
hearts  throbbed  with  fresh  hope,  who  were  nerved 
by  ambition  and  aglow  with  expectations,  furnished 
but  few  pessimists.  There  were  such,  however, 
and  the  fact  illustrates  the  universality  of  the  emi- 
grating mania  which  seized  the  people  of  the  East- 
ern States  during  the  '40's  and  the  early  '50's. 
Fourier  himself  was  unable  to  even  test  his  pro- 
posed system  of  communism ;  but  Fourierism 
floated  to  America  and  found  an  advocate  in 
Horace  Greeley,  who  preached  the  new  "  ism  "  in 
the  columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune. 

It  was  from  reading  in  the  Tribune  Mr.  Greeley's 
earnest  exposition  of  "the  science  of  the  new  social 
relations  "  and  "  the  principle  of  equitable  distribu- 
tions," that  a  number  of  well-meaning  people  at  Ken- 
osha (then  Southport)  determined  to  put  Fourierism 
into  practice  right  here  in  Wisconsin.  They  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  world,  as  Mr.  Mantalini 
used  to  say,  was  "  going  to  the  demnition  bow-wows," 
and  that  it  was  time  to  reorganize  society  in  such 


222  TERRnORIAL   DAYS. 

a  manner  as  to  "guard  against  our  present  social 
evils,"  that  manner  being  Fourier's. 

Accordingly  a  stock  association  was  formed, 
with  shares  at  twenty-five  dollars  each,  and  bear- 
ino-  the  warlike  title  of  "  The  Wisconsin  Phalanx." 
In  the  bright  spring  days  of  1844,  a  caravan  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  enthusiastic  reformers,  in  ox-carts 
and  horse  wagons,  with  droves  of  cattle  and  abun- 
dant implements  of  husbandry  and  the  household, 
wended  its  way  over  swelling  prairies  and  wooded 
hills,  into  the  peaceful  valley  of  the  Ceresco,  near 
where  the  city  of  Ripon  now  stands.  The  Phalanx, 
at  first  established  in  temporary  quarters,  took  pos- 
session a  year  later  of  a  large  building  "  four  hun- 
dred feet  in  length,  consisting  of  two  rows  of 
tenements,  with  a  hall  between,  under  one  roof." 
While  all  ate  in  common,  each  family  lived  in  its 
own  compartment.  Labor  was  voluntary,  in  com- 
mon fields  and  shops,  under  Phalanx  officials,  and 
each  person  received  credit  according  to  his  value 
as  a  worker.  When,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  the 
net  i^rofits  were  divided,  the  dividends  varied  ac- 
cording to  this  record  of  toil.  Their  business  and 
social  meetings  were  in  the  evenings;  Tuesday 
evening  was  given  up  to  the  literary  and  debating 
club,  Wednesday  to  the  singing  school  and  Thurs- 
day to  dancing. 

Had  each  member  been  equally  capable  with  his 


TERRITORIAL    DAYS.  223 

neighbor,  had  tlic  families  been  of  the  same  size, 
had  there  been  no  jealousies,  no  bickerings,  had 
they  been  without  ambition:  had  they,  in  short, 
been  contented,  the  Phalanx  might  have  remained 
a  success.  They  were  clothed,  fed  and  housed  at 
less  expense  than  their  neighbors  without  the  pale ; 
they  had  many  social  enjoyments  not  known  else- 
where in  the  valley,  and  according  to  all  the  social 
philosophers  should  have  been  a  happy  people. 
But  the  strong  and  the  willing  came  to  see  that 
they  were  yoked  to  men  who  were  weak  and  sloth- 
ful;  natural  abilities  were  not  given  full  play ;  there 
was  no  reward  for  individual  excellence.  It  was  a 
time,  too,  when  shrewd  men  of  the  world,  all  around 
them,  were  making  fortunes  in  land  speculations 
and  other  enterprises.  This  was  not  possible  in 
the  Phalanx.  Its  members  considered  themselves 
hampered  by  their  bond  ;  and  ceasing  to  have  a 
Quixotic  care  for  the  reformation  of  society  were 
only  too  anxious  to  get  back  into  the  whirl  of  that 
human  struggle  for  existence,  which  they  had  once 
decried.  For  seven  years  the  Phalanx  stood  its 
ground  and  then  melted  away.  The  farm,  which 
had  greatly  increased  in  value,  was  divided  among 
the  members,  at  a  fair  profit  to  each.  A  desire  to 
share  in  the  increase,  and  to  engage  in  individual 
speculation,  were  the  main  causes  of  the  failure  of 
this  interesting  experiment  in  communism. 


2  24  TERJUIORIAL    DAYS. 

Of  a  quite  different  type  was  another  commu- 
nistic effort,  in  these  old  Territorial  days.  Down 
in  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi, 
there  had  grown  up  a  large  and  prosperous  settle- 
ment of  polygamous  fanatics  under  the  guidance 
of  that  profligate  knave,  Joseph  Smith,  calling 
themselves  Latter  Day  Saints.  At  Burlington,  a 
pretty  little  village  in  Racine  County,  Wisconsin, 
there  was  an  erratic  but  somewhat  cultured  lawyer, 
named  James  Jesse  Strang.  He  had  entered  life  in 
Cayuga  County,  New  York,  in  1813,  as  a  farmer's 
boy.  Endowed  with  an  active  but  eccentric  intel- 
lect, and  a  retentive  memory,  he  cultivated  a  keen 
desire  for  notoriety.  In  early  manhood  he  taught 
school,  delivered  temperance  lectures,  was  a  political 
worker,  edited  a  country  newspaper,  and  finally,  in 
1843,  drifted  out  to  Wisconsin  as  a  lawyer,  leaving 
behind  him  in  his  native  region  a  reputation  for  a 
wonderful  "gift  of  gab"  and  overweening  self- 
esteem. 

The  Mormon  church  was  meeting  with  surpris- 
ing success  and  offered  a  field  for  distinction  to  men 
of  the  Strang  type,  which  he  was  quick  to  take  ad- 
vantage of.  In  January,  1844,  he  visited  Smith  at 
Nauvoo;  in  I'Y'biuary  he  was  baptized,  and  in  March 
became  an  elder,  at  once  being  accepted  as  a  valu- 
able agent  in  the  work  of  the  church.  Wisconsin 
was    assigned  to  his    charge.      In    June  following, 


TERKl'JORJAL    DAYS.  225 

Joseph  and  Hiram  Smith  were  slain  l^y  a  mob,  and 
Strang,  although  a  convert  of  but  fi\'e  months' 
standing,  became  a  candidate  for  the  succession  to 
Joseph.  He  displayed  documents  purporting  to  be 
written  by  Joseph  before  the  "  martyrdom,"  author- 
izing Strang  to  "  plant  a  stake  of  Zion,"  or  in  other 
words  a  branch  of  the  church,  on  White  River,  near 
the  latter's  home  in  Burlington,  the  specified  dis- 
trict covering  territory  both  in  Racine  and  \\  al- 
worth  counties. 

Strang  was  denounced  by  "  the  twelve  apostles  " 
of  the  church  at  Nauvoo  as  an  impostor,  and  his 
documents  were  declared  vulsfar  forq;eries.  Beino- 
driven  from  the  Illinois  paradise,  he  returned  to 
Wisconsin,  and  establishing  himself  in  "  the  chosen 
land  "  on  White  River,  called  the  place  Voree  ;  from 
here  he  issued  a  pronunciamento  declaring  that 
he  had  been  appointed  by  Joseph  Smith  as  the  lat- 
ter's successor  in  the  presidency.  He  also  claimed 
to  have  visions,  wherein  the  angel  of  the  Lord  ad- 
vised him  that  Nauvoo  had  been  "  cut  off  "  and  that 
Voree  was  now  the  City  of  Promise.  Adherents 
began  to  arrive  in  April,  1845.  ^^  January  follow- 
ing, he  started  a  little  four-page  monthly  paper 
called  the  Voree  Herald,  in  which  he  published  his 
visions,  called  on  the  Saints  to  rally  to  his  stand- 
ard, and  abused  the  "  Brighamites  "  at  Nauvoo  in 
language  more  vigorous  than  refined. 


2  26  TERRJ'J'OKIAL    DAYS. 

He  was  an  active  charlatan,  with  plausible  man- 
ners, and  soon  gathered  a  number  of  ardent  follow- 
ers at  Voree,  besides  conducting  missions  among 
"primitive  Mormons"  in  Ohio,  New  York  and 
other  Eastern  and  Central  States.  The  Herald  for 
September,  1846,  claimed  that  the  Sunday  gather- 
ings at  Voree  numbered  "  from  one  to  two  thousand 
people,"  and  that  the  "  stake  of  Zion  "  was  growing 
apace;  "its  population,"  said  the  Herald,  "dwell 
in  plain  houses,  in  board  shanties,  in  tents,  and 
sometimes  many  of  them  in  the  open  air."  The 
colony  was  organized  on  the  plan  of  community  in 
ownership,  but  in  matters  of  government,  both 
spiritual  and  temporal,  President  Strang  was  a  dic- 
tator. He  claimed  to  be  divinely  inspired,  even  in 
matters  of  the  pettiest  detail. 

Imitating  Joseph  Smith  in  most  of  his  methods, 
Strang,  like  Joseph,  pretended  to  discover  the  word 
of  God  in  deep-hidden  records.  Joseph  unearthed 
the  Hook  of  Mormon  in  the  hills  of  Ontario;  so 
did  Strang  dig  up  certain  curious  brazen  plates 
at  Voree,  which  the  angel  of  the  Lord  enabled 
him  to  translate  for  the  fierald  into  a  meaningless 
hotchpotch,  phrased  in  the  familiar  style  of  Holy 
Writ.  Afterwards  Strang  made  a  considerable 
collection  of  such  plates,  discovered  by  himself, 
and  in  general  displ.ucd  much  ingenuity  in  duping 
his  company  of  vulgar  fanatics. 


TERRITOKJAL   DAYS.  22'J 

Voree  became  so  prosperous  that  Strang  estab- 
lished a  branch  "stake"  on  Beaver  Island,  in  the 
lonely  archipelago  near  the  mouth  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan. This  was  in  May,  1847.  He  found  great 
difficulty  with  the  resident  fishermen,  who  did  not 
favor  the  Mormon  invasion  ;  but  the  stake  grew  in 
the  face  of  obstacles  reared  by  both  man  and  nature, 
and  in  two  or  three  years'  time  there  were  two  thou- 
sand devotees  gathered  on  Beaver  Island,  with  neat 
houses,  a  saw-mill,  roads,  docks  and  a  large  taber- 
nacle. When  Strang  moved  to  the  island,  Voree 
ceased  to  be  headquarters  for  the  primitive  Mor- 
mons. The  new  island  city  was  dubbed  St.  James, 
and  in  1850  the  colony  was  reorganized  as  a  "  king- 
dom," having  a  "  royal  press,"  foreign  embassadors 
and  all  the  paraphernalia  of  an  infant  empire. 
Strang  was  "  king,  apostle,  prophet,  seer,  revelator 
and  translator."  The  community  system  was  aban- 
doned, tithes  were  collected,  polygamy  was  for  the 
first  time  established  —  King  James  being  allowed 
five  wives  —  tea,  coffee  and  tobacco  were  prohibited, 
and  schools  and  debating  clubs  opened  ;  while  from 
the  royal  press  was  issued  a  paper,  at  first  weekly, 
but  afterwards  daily,  called  the  Northern  Islander, 
which  was  the  official  organ  of  the  court  and  its 
attendant  "angels  and  apostles." 

A  certain  sort  of  civilization  prevailed.  There 
were  creature   comforts   in   reasonable   abundance, 


2  28  TERRIIORIAL    DAYS. 

and  a  degree  of  thrift.  The  women  wore  the 
Bloomer  costume,  and  were  generally  coarse  and 
sensual ;  the  men  were  rough  and  illiterate.  As 
for  Strang  himself,  he  was  an  emotional  orator  who 
understood  well  the  art  of  swaying  untrained 
minds;  he  was  "a  man  of  vigorous  frame,  light 
complexion,  and  high  forehead,  intellectual,  fluent 
in  speech,  of  suave  manners,  and  very  companion- 
able." Nevertheless,  the  Gentile  fishermen  came 
to  hate  King  Strang,  with  all  the  bitterness  capable 
to  their  untamed  natures,  and  his  empire  was  con- 
tinually at  warfare  with  the  people  of  the  neighbor- 
ing isles.  There  were  too,  in  his  own  camp,  busy 
enemies  who  were  jealous  of  his  often  harsh  and 
always  absolute  sway.  In  1851,  the  Beaver  Island 
magnate,  at  the  instigation  of  some  of  the  Saints, 
was  taken  to  Detroit  on  board  a  United  States  war 
steamer,  to  answer  to  charges  of  treason,  of  rob- 
bing the  mails,  of  squatting  on  government  land, 
and  what  not,  but  was  acquitted.  In  1855,  how- 
ever, he  fell  a  victim,  like  many  another  kingly 
ruler,  to  conspiracy  among  his  subjects.  He  was 
assassinated  on  the  sixteenth  of  June  by  two  fellow 
MornK)ns. 

Slrani;  did  not  pass  away  at  once.  He  was 
taken  back  on  a  stretcher,  to  his  long-abandoned 
Vr)rr(\  where  until  death  ho  was  carefully  attended 
jjy  his   first  and  lawful  wife;  the  poor  woman  had 


TERRIIVRJAL    DAYS.  229 

declined  to  adhere  to  him  during  his  fanatical  and 
polygamous  career  on  Beaver  Island,  but  was  pos- 
sessed of  the  idea  that  death  could  alone  dissolve 
their  marriage  relations.  Dying  on  the  ninth  of 
July,  he  was  buried  on  the  prairie  at  Voree  (now 
Spring  Prairie),  and  his  grave  is  still  unmarked. 
Voree  was,  soon  after  his  death,  abandoned  by  the 
Mormons.  As  for  his  island  kino:dom,  it  did  not 
survive  him.  The  Gentile  fishers  came  with  torch, 
axe  and  bludgeon.  The  royal  city  was  razed,  the 
Saints  were  banished,  and  there  are  now  few  visible 
signs  that  an  empire  once  flourished  in  the  Mich- 
igan archipelago. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


"barstow  and  the  balance. 


N      September,      1844, 
Doty    was    removed 
from     the    governor- 
ship to  be  succeeded 
by  Nathaniel  P.  Tall- 
madge,  who   in   turn 
served  for  but  eight 
months,     being      re- 
placed    by      Dodge, 
who,  as  the  nominee 
of    President    Polk,   filled   the    executive  chair  for 
three  years  more,  until  Wisconsin  entered  the  lists 
of  the  Union. 

Dodge  had  no  sooner  regained  possession  of  his 
old  seat,  than  the  ao-itation  for  statehood  com- 
nicnced.  Wisconsin  had  then  a  pojmlation  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  and  the  legislature 
asked  the  ])e()ple  to  vote  upon  a  ])roposition  to 
acce])t  the  new  relation.  When  the  ballots  were 
counted,  the    first    Tuesda}'    in    April,    1S46,  it   was 

found    that   a    l;u-ge    majority  desired  Wisconsin    to 

230 


''BAKSTOW  AXD    THE   BALANCE:'         23 1 

become  a  State.  A  constitutional  convention  met 
at  Madison,  between  the  fifth  of  October  and  the 
sixteenth  of  December  following.  In  this  conven- 
tion it  was  attempted  by  some  pugnacious  mem- 
bers, reviving  the  squabble  of  earlier  years,  to  place 
a  proviso  in  the  constitution  to  the  effect  that  Wis- 
consin would  enter  the  Union  on  condition  that 
she  be  "  restored  to  her  ancient  boundaries."  This 
effort  failed,  as  did  also  one  to  establish  a  new 
State  to  the  north,  to  be  called  "  Superior,"  and  to 
command  the  entire  southern  shore  of  that  Great 
Lake.  When  the  constitution  was  voted  upon  by 
the  people,  in  April,  1847,  the  document  was  re- 
jected and  a  new  convention  was  ordered  at  a  spec- 
ial legislative  session. 

The  second  constitutional  convention  met  at 
the  capital,  the  fifteenth  of  December,  1847.  A 
new  census  of  the  Territory  had  revealed  a  popula- 
tion of  210,546,  and  the  importance  of  entering 
the  sisterhood  of  States  had  become  evident  to  all. 
The  new  constitution  avoided  the  rocks  on  which 
the  other  had  been  wrecked,  by  leaving  several 
mooted  questions  —  banks  and  exemptions  chiefly 
—  for  subsequent  legislative  decision.  It  was 
adopted  by  the  people  in  March,  1848,  and  the 
congressional  act  admitting  Wisconsin  to  the 
Union  was  approved  the  twenty-ninth  of  May 
followino-.     The   first    State  election   was   held  on 

O 


232  ''  BARSTOW  AND    THE   BALANCE:' 

the  eighth  of  May,  Nelson  Dewey,  Democrat,  being 
elected  governor  by  a  majority  of   5,089  in  a  total 

of  33.987  votes. 

The  machinery  of  the  new  State  was  soon  in 
o-ood  workincy  condition.  From  the  first  the 
Badger  commonwealth  took  front  rank  in  the  pas- 
sage of  liberal  laws,  and  the  generous  maintenance 
of  a  high  order  of  public  institutions.  Its  chari- 
table, reformatory,  penal  and  educational  systems, 
some  of  them  well  inaugurated  in  Territorial  times, 
were  placed  upon  a  firm  footing  under  the  State 
government,  and  have  ever  since  progressed  with 
regularity,  being  extended  and  improved  with  the 
o-rowth  of  the  commonwealth  and  the  development 
of  scientific  methods. 

The  population  of  Wisconsin  had  been  increas- 
ing with  rapidity  for  several  years  past,  but  the 
formation  of  the  State  gave  a  new  impetus  to  its 
growth  —  the  increase  during  the  two  years  follow- 
ing 1848  being  nearly  ninety-five  thousand.  Wis- 
consin's attractions  were  cheap  and  rich  lands, 
valuable  lead  mines,  immense  pine  forests  and 
practically  unlimited  water-power  along  its  many 
beautiful  rivers. 

In  1850,  the  national  census  revealed  the  pres- 
ence here  of  305,391  while  persons,  against  30,945 
in  1840  —  an  increment  of  886.8  ])er  cent,  in  one 
decade.      No    other    y\meriean    commonwealth,  ex- 


.^  4ftf 


^j^'>mM^        ^- 


N^,<<v--    .siSgff-'-^^m.';:. 


o^' 


BY    LAKE   AND    RIVER. 


''BARSTOW  AND    THE  BALANCE."         235 

cept  Minnesota,  has  exceeded  this  increase  in  any 
decade  in  its  history.  Wisconsin  has  continued  to 
have  a  large  and  healthy  growth  in  population,  but 
those  ten  years  following  1840  have  never  been 
equalled,  nor  are  they  ever  likely  to  be.  The  new- 
comers, while  largely  from  New  York,  New  Eng- 
land and  Ohio,  included  many  thousands  of 
European  immigrants  —  Germans,  Scandinavians, 
Irish,  Poles,  Belgians,  Dutch,  Swiss,  English  and 
Scotch.  This  constant  and  enormous  accretion  of 
foreign  blood  has  made  Wisconsin  one  of  the  most 
interesting  fields  in  the  United  States  for  the  study 
of  race  amalgamation. 

The  impeachment  trial  of  Levi  Hubbell,  judge  of 
the  second  judicial  circuit,  in  1853,  was  a  notable 
event  in  the  history  of  the  State.  On  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  January,  a  communication  was  sent  in  to 
the  assembly,  by  William  K.  Wilson,  a  private 
citizen,  charging  Judge  Hubbell  with  "  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors,  and  malfeasances  in  office." 
The  judge  being  one  of  the  most  prominent  men 
in  Wisconsin,  these  charges  created  much  excite- 
ment both  in  the  legislature  and  among  the  people. 
The  assembly  at  once  placed  the  case  in  the 
hands  of  a  special  committee,  which  on  the 
twenty-third  of  February  reported  charges  and 
specifications  and  recommended  his  removal  from 
office.     Upon  receiving  this    report,  the  assembly 


236         ''BARSTOW  AND    THE  BALANCE:' 


decided  to  proceed  against  Hubbell  by  impeach- 
ment. The  senate,  sitting  as  a  court,  ordered  that 
a  special  session  be  held,  commencing  the  sixth  of 
June,  for  the  trial  of  the  case.  The  trial  attracted 
a  large  crowd  of  spectators  and  elicited  great  popu- 
lar interest,  with  no  small  degree  of  factional  bit- 
terness. It  lasted  until  the  eleventh  of  July,  when 
the  senate  rendered  its  verdict  of  "  not  guilty  of 
the  charges  of  corrupt  conduct  in  office,  nor  of 
crimes  and  misdemeanors."  The  closing  argu- 
ment of  the  counsel  for  the  assembly,  Edward  G. 
Ryan,  of  Milwaukee,  afterwards  chief  justice  of 
the  State,  was  without  doubt  the  most  acute  and 
brilliant  oratorical  effort  ever  made  at  the  Wiscon- 
sin bar,  and  at  once  obtained  for  him  a  national 
reputation.  It  is  still  studied  in  some  of  the 
Western  law  schools  as  a  model  of  its  kind. 

Another  and  even  more  celebrated  trial  was  held 
at  Madison  in  1856,  and  in  this,  too,  Mr.  Ryan  was 
one  of  the  principal  attorneys.  William  A.  Bar- 
stow,  of  Waukesha  County,  had  been  secretary  of 
state  in  1850  and  185 1,  during  Governor  Dewey's 
second  term.  Barstow  was  a  fine-appearing  man, 
bold,  energetic,  aggressive  in  character,  and  from 
his  first  advent  intf)  ]^olitics  commanded  a  large 
and  eiilluisiastic  following.  A  stout  Democrat,  he 
was  regarded  as  a  shining  light  in  his  party;  but 
owing  to  dissensions,  chiefly  growing  out  of  the 


''  BARSTOW  AND    THE  BALANCED         237 

fight  over  the  first  constitution,  the  Wisconsin 
democracy  had  become  divided  in  their  councils, 
and  Barstow,  as  secretary  of  state,  was  the  leader 
of  a  faction.  His  enemies  were  unstinted  in  their 
abuse  of  him.  It  was  a  time  when  bitter  person- 
alities pervaded  the  political  newspapers,  and  in- 
vectives in  stump  harangues  were  regarded  as 
equivalent  to  arguments.  His  enemies  did  not 
hesitate  to  call  Barstow  by  some  pretty  hard 
names,  and  charges  of  corruption  were  freely  laid 
at  his  door. 

An  expressive  epithet  grew  out  of  this  condition 
of  affairs,  which  long  lived  in  Wisconsin  politics. 
One  member  of  a  firm  of  Madison  printers  and 
newspaper  publishers,  wrote  cheeringly  to  his 
absent  partner  of  their  prospects  for  getting  the 
State  printing  contract.  The  bids  were,  under  the 
statute,  to  be  sent  in  to  the  secretary  of  state,  and 
opened  and  passed  upon  by  that  officer,  the  state 
treasurer  and  attorney  general.  The  printer,  who 
was  a  friend  of  the  administration,  assured  his  col- 
league that  he  had  made  arrangements  for  inside 
knowledge  of  the  bidding,  adding  "  We  must  get 
a  good  bid.  .  .  .  evai  if  luc  have  to  buy  up 
Barstow  and  the  balance  "  —  meaning,  by  "  bal- 
ance," the  other  State  officials  engaged  in  the 
lettinor.      It    is    amonq-    the    thinors    unknowable, 


'&•  ""  '^  "...^'-C, 


whether    the    secretary    was    or    was    not     rightly 


2  38  '' BAR  STOW  AND    THE   BALANCE:' 


judged  by  the  ambitious  printer;  but  the  indiscreet 
letter  was  found,  and  promptly  published  in  a  rival 
journal,*  so  that  ever  after  that  the  faction  in 
power  was  derisively  known  as  "  Barstow  and 
the  Balance  "  —  a  taking  catch-phrase  for  the 
opposition. 

The  close  of  his  secretaryship  did  not  retire 
Barstow  from  the  public  gaze.  He  remained  a 
powerful  leader  in  his  party,  and  at  his  devoted 
breast  were  levelled  the  cross-bows  of  his  now 
numerous  foes.  During  the  early  months  of  1853, 
the  State  legislature  was  being  importuned  for  a 
charter,  by  a  party  of  speculators  calling  them- 
selves the  Rock  River  Valley  Union  Railroad 
Company.  It  was  the  first  time  that  a  Wisconsin 
legislature  had  been  "  worked  "  by  a  railroad  lobby, 
and  the  methods  employed  this  winter  were  such 
as  to  cause  a  sensation  throughout  the  State  and 
scandalize  many  good  citizens.  The  lobbyists  en- 
gaged a  club  house,  which  they  called  "  Monk's 
Hall,"  and  herein  were  given  superb  dinners  and 
held  midnicfht  orQ:ies,  the  remembrance  of  which 
is  still  vivid  in  the  minds  of  those  who  participated 
in  them.  While  the  "Monks  of  Monk's  Hall" 
represented  all  shades  of  political  belief,  Barstow 
and  some  of  his  adherents  were  popularly  supposed 
to  be   largely  interested    in   the   unholy  enterprise. 

•Wisconsin  Democrat  (Madison),  October  5,  1850. 


''  BARSTOW  AND    THE   BALANCE:'         239 

The  "  Monks  "  were  dubbed  "  The  Forty  Thieves  " 
by  those  who  deemed  them  no  better  than  the 
company  AH  Baba  found  in  the  forest  cave,  in 
olden  time  ;  and  the  convenient  term,  to  this  day 
a  familiar  one  in  Wisconsin  political  phraseology, 
soon  became  fastened  by  their  enemies  upon  the 
Barstow  political  coterie  in  particular,  thus  losing 
its  original  significance  as  an  epithet  for  the  rail- 
road lobbyists. 

The  succeeding  fall,  Barstow  was  elected  gover- 
nor for  the  years  1854-55,  having  a  plurality  of 
8,519  over  Edward  D.  Holton,  Republican,  and 
Henry  S.  Baird,  Whig.  An  aggressive  tone  per- 
vaded his  administration,  and  the  existing  political 
bitterness  was  intensified.  Like  all  positive  men, 
Barstow  had  a  capacity  for  making  enemies  as  well 
as  friends,  and  the  former  complained  that  he 
allowed  his  official  staff  to  mismanage  the  State 
school  funds,  and  favor  personal  friends  in  the 
loaning  of  State  money.  Whatever  truth  there 
may  have  been  in  these  assertions,  it  is  certain 
that  Barstow  had  lost  ground  during  his  term, 
and  although  re-nominated  failed  to  draw  out  his 
full  party  strength  in  the  November  election  of 
1855.  The  new  Republican  party,  too,  was  now 
attaining  huge  proportions ;  and  the  result  was, 
the  balloting  for  governor  was  so  close  that  from 
the  middle  of  November  to  the  middle  of  Decem- 


240         ''BAKSTOW  AND    THE   BALANCE:' 

ber  the  people  were  in  a  state  of  unquiet,  not 
knowing  whether  Barstow  had  been  returned  or 
whether  he  had  been  supplanted  by  his  Republican 
opponent,  Coles  Bashford,  a  Winnebago  County 
lawyer. 

The  State  board  of  canvassers  consisted  of  the 
secretary  of  state,  the  state  treasurer  and  the 
attorney-general,  all  of  them  warm  supporters  of 
Barstow.  On  the  fifteenth  of  December,  the  board 
canvassed  the  returns  and  reported  that  Barstow 
had  received  36,355  votes,  and  Bashford  36,198, 
leaving  Barstow  a  majority  of  157.  Bashford's 
friends  at  once  claimed  that  the  original  returns 
from  the  various  counties  showed  different  figures, 
and  that  the  State  canvassers  had  forged  a  number 
of  supplemental  county  returns,  pretending  to  re- 
ceive them  in  Madison  upon  the  fourteenth  of 
December,  the  day  before  the  official  canvass. 
There  was  much  popular  disquiet  over  the  alleged 
frauds,  and  the  Republican  leaders  at  once  prepared 
for  a  contest. 

The  seventh  of  January,  1856,  was  inauguration 
day.  Barstow  took  the  oath  of  office  amid  the 
pomp  of  civic  and  military  display,  and  remained 
in  possession  of  the  executive  chamber.  Bashford, 
stcp])ing  into  the  room  of  the  State  supreme  court, 
was  quietly  sworn  in  l)y  Chief-Justice  Whiton. 
The  sn])rem('  rcnirl   was    at    once    called   upon   by 


''BARS'lOW  AND    THE   BALANCE:'         24 1 

Bashford,  in  a  quo  warranto  suit,  to  oust  tlie  incum- 
bent and  give  the  office  of  governor  to  the  relator. 
Thus  commenced  the  most  celebrated  case  ever 
tried  by  the  Wisconsin  supreme  bench.* 

This  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States  that  a  State  court  had  been  called 
upon  to  decide  as  to  the  right  of  a  governor  to 
hold  his  seat.  Barstow's  counsel  at  once  ques- 
tioned its  jurisdiction,  claiming  that  it  would  be 
a  dangerous  precedent  for  one  of  the  three  co-ordi- 
nate branches  of  government  to  decide  upon  the 
eligibility  of  another;  that,  this  right  admitted,  the 
judiciary  would  be  elevated  above  the  people  and 
none  but  the  creatures  of  the  court  would  be 
allowed  to  hold  office.  The  contest  waged  fiercely 
for  some  weeks,  the  court  at  last  holding  that  it 
had  jurisdiction.  The  counsel  for  Bashford  man- 
aged his  case  shrewdly ;  they  won  on  nearly  every 
motion  made  by  them,  and  gradually  cornered  Bar- 
stow  until  on  the  eighth  of  March,  the  latter  and  his 
counsel  withdrew  from  the  case,  protesting  against 
the  rulings  of  the  judges,  which  they  declared  to 
be  actuated  by  political  considerations. 

But  the  withdrawal  of  Barstow  did  not  prevent 

*  The  court  consisted  of  Edward  V.  Whiten,  chief  justice,  and  Abram  D.  Smith  and 
Orsamus  Cole,  associate  justices.  Bashford's  counsel  were  Timothy  O.  Howe,  Edward  G. 
Ryan,  James  H.  Knowlton  and  Alexander  W.  Randall.  Counsel  employed  for  Barstow  were 
Jonathan  E.  Arnold,  Harlow  S.  Orton  and  Matthew  H.  Carpenter.  All  of  these  gentlemen, 
judges  and  lawyers,  were  men  of  high  distinction  in  their  profession.  It  is  a  notable  fact,  that 
but  two  of  them  are  now  (i8go)  living  —  Cole  and  Orton,  the  former  the  present  chief-justice 
of  the  State  supreme  court,  and  the  latt;r  one  of  the  associate  justices. 


242  '' BARSTOW  AXD    THE    BALANCE:' 

the  court  proceeding  with  its  inquiry.  It  went  be- 
hind the  certificate  of  the  State  canvassers,  and 
investigated  into  the  legality  of  the  election  re- 
turns. Here,  gross  irregularities  were  found,  and 
as  a  result  of  the  investigation,  761  votes  were 
deducted  by  the  court  from  Barstow's  total,  and 
405  added  to  Bashford's.  The  re-canvass  gave 
Bashford  1,009  majority,  and  in  accordance  with 
this  finding  it  was  adjudged  on  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  March  that  Bashford  was  the  rightful 
governor. 

Meanwhile,  a  new  complication  had  arisen.  Fore- 
seeing the  result,  Barstow,  in  spite  of  his  threat 
not  to  "  give  up  his  office  alive,"  had,  on  the  twen- 
ty-first of  March,  sent  in  his  resignation  to  the  legis- 
lature, and  Arthur  McArthur,  who  had  been  elected 
as  lieutenant-governor,  became  governor  by  virtue 
of  the  constitution.  McArthur  defiantly  announced 
his  determination  to  hold  the  fort  at  all  hazards  for 
the  balance  of  the  gubernatorial  term.  His  theory 
was,  that  having  unquestionably  been  chosen  lieu- 
tenant-governor, and  having  assumed  the  executive 
chair  upon  the  resignation  of  Governor  Barstow, 
his  own  right  to  the  successorship  was  incontest- 
able. P>ut  the  court  promptly  ruled  that  McArthur 
could  gain  no  rights  except  through  Barstow ;  and 
Barstow's  title  being  worthless,  McArthur  could 
not    succeed    to    it.      This    view    of    the    case    had 


'' BARSTOW  AND    THF.    BAT.ANCEr  243 


apparently   not    occurred   to    the    Barstow  people, 
and  its  annunciation  greatly  angered  them. 

Throughout  this  long  contest,  it  may  be  well 
imagined  that  popular  excitement  in  and  around 
Madison  ran  increasingly  high.  Parties  of  men 
representing  both  relator  and  respondent  made  no 


L:  J^-.^. 


J^"> 


THE   STATE   CAPITAL   AT    MADISON. 


secret  of  the  fact  that  they  were  armed  and  were 
drilling,  in  anticipation  of  a  desperate  encounter. 
It  would  have  taken  but  small  provocation  to  ignite 
this  tinder  box,  but  the  management  on  both  sides 
was  judicious,  and  although  the  partisan  bands  had 
frequent  wordy  quarrels  and  there  were  numerous 


244  ''  BARSTOW  AND    THE   BALANCE." 

and  vigorous  threats  of  violence,  there  was  no  ap- 
proach to  blows.  The  stubborn  attitude  of  Mc- 
Arthur  was  calculated  to  overstrain  the  relations 
between  the  opposing  factors  among  the  people, 
and  towards  the  last  it  seemed  as  though  it  would 
be  impossible  to  avoid  trouble,  when  the  crisis 
came. 

The  court  rendered  its  decision  on  Monday,  the 
twenty-fourth  of  March.  It  was  announced  that 
Bashford  would  take  possession  of  the  governor's 
office  upon  Tuesday.  Early  in  the  appointed  day, 
people  began  to  gather  in  the  vicinity  of  the  capi- 
tol,  coming  in  from  the  neighboring  country  in  a 
circuit  of  ten  miles,  as  they  would  flock  to  a  trav- 
eling circus.  By  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the 
State  house  was  crowded  with  citizens,  principally 
the  adherents  of  Bashford,  and  there  was  much 
ill-suppressed  passion.  At  eleven  o'clock,  Bash- 
ford with  a  number  of  his  friends  proceeded  to  the 
Supreme  court  room,  in  the  capitol.  Upon  emerg- 
ing, accompanied  by  the  Dane  County  sheriff  with 
the  court's  judgment  in  hand,  the  governor  made 
his  way  through  the  crowded  corridors  to  the  ex- 
ecutive chamber,  encouraged  by  friendly  cheers. 

At  the  chamber,  Basliford  and  his  escort  rapped 
and  were  bidden  to  enter.  Inside,  were  McArthur, 
hi.s  private  serretai-y  and  several  friends.  The  gov- 
ernor,  who   was   a    poilly,   i)leasant-]ooking  gentle- 


"BARS JO IV  jyn  THE  balance:'       245 

man  of  the  old  school,  leisurely  took  off  his  top- 
coat, hung  it  and  his  hat  in  the  wardrobe,  and 
blandly  informed  McArthur  that  he  had  come  to 
take  the  helm  of  State.  The  incumbent  indig- 
nantly inquired  whether  force  was  to  be  used  in 
supporting  the  mandate  of  the  court ;  whereupon 
the  new-comer  coolly  replied  that  he  "  presumed 
no  force  would  be  essential,  but  in  case  any  was 
needed  there  would  be  no  hesitation  whatever,  with 
the  sheriff's  help,  in  applying  it."  McArthur,  at 
once  calming  down,  declared  that  he  "  considered 
this  threat  as  constructive  force,"  and  would  at 
once  leave.  As  he  hurried  out  of  the  door  with 
his  secretary  and  adherents,  they  passed  between 
rows  of  Bashford's  friends  who  were  Qruardins^  the 
portal  and  the  corridor  without.  There  was  a  shout 
of  triumph,  and  in  a  few  minutes  Governor  Bash- 
ford  was  receiving  the  congratulations  of  the 
crowd. 

The  newly-installed  executive  met  with  no  fur- 
ther resistance  from  "  Barstow  and  the  Balance," 
but  in  the  legislature  there  was  at  first  some  oppo- 
sition. The  senate  received  Bashford's  opening 
message  with  enthusiasm  and  at  once  passed  a 
congratulatory  vote.  The  assembly  at  first  re- 
fused, thirty-eight  to  thirty-four,  to  hold  communi- 
cation with  the  governor;  but,  finally,  thirty  of 
the    Democratic   members  withdrew,  after  filing  a 


246         ''BARSTOIV  AND    THE  BALANCEr 

protest,  and  the  assembly  then  agreed,  thirty-seven 
to  nine,  to  recognize  the  new  official.  The  system 
of  government  by  the  people,  had  safely  passed 
through  a  trying  ordeal ;  popular  passions  soon 
subsided  and  the  fear  of  civil  war  in  Wisconsin 
was  at  an  end. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


SPOTS    ON    THE    ESCUTCHEON. 


HE  Fugitive  Slave  Act 
of  1850  had  met  with 
the  same  harsh  oppo- 
sition in  Wisconsin, 
that  had  greeted  it 
in  the  other  free 
States.  Not  being 
upon  the  direct  road 
to  Canada,  there 
were  few  instances  of 
bondsmen  attempting  to  escape  across  its  territory, 
and  thus  giving  practical  illustration  of  the  iniquity 
of  the  slave  system.  Yet  from  the  first  there  was 
a  goodly  band  of  abolitionists  within  the  borders 
of  Badgerdom,  men  and  women  of  spirit  and  brain, 
who  made  their  influence  felt  in  many  communi- 
ties. The  previous  year,  in  1849,  Isaac  P.  Walker, 
one  of  the  representatives  of  the  State  in  the 
United  States  senate,  had  introduced  and  voted 
for  an  amendment  to  the  Congressional  general 
appropriation  bill,  providing  for  a  government  in 

247 


248  SPOTS    ON   THE   ESCUTCHEON. 

California  and  New  Mexico,  which  did  not  con- 
tain a  provision  prohibiting  slavery  in  that  section. 
This  action  was  directly  contrary  to  the  legisla- 
ture's wishes,  expressed  in  instructions  to  the  State 
delegation  in  Congress,  adopted  but  a  few  weeks 
before.  The  legislature  thereupon  passed  resolu- 
tions to  the  effect  that  Walker  had  "  violated  his 
pledges  given  before  his  election,  outraged  the 
feelings  of  the  people  and  openly  violated  "  his  in- 
structions, and  he  was  "  hereby  instructed  to  im- 
mediately resign  his  seat."  The  senator,  however, 
did  not  resign.* 

It  was  not  until  1854,  that  occasion  was  found 
to  test  the  Fuoitive  Slave  Act  in  Wisconsin. 
Joshua  Glover,  a  runaway  slave,  was  employed  in 
a  mill  some  four  miles  north  of  Racine,  on  the 
road  to  Milwaukee.  On  the  night  of  the  tenth  of 
March,  he  was  playing  cards  with  three  other  men 
of  his  race,  in  a  neighboring  cabin.  Between  seven 
and  eight  o'clock,  the  game  was  interrupted  by 
the  sudden  appearance  on  the  scene  of  five  white 
men,  one  of  them  a  Missourian  named  Benammi 
S.  Garland,  and  the  others  a  United  States  deputy 
marshal  from  Milwaukee,  with  five  assistants,  two 
of    the   latter   being   citizens    of    Racine.     Garland 


•  In  1866,  the  IcRislatiire  tlcmandetl  the  resignation  (if  United  States  Senator  James  R. 
I)iK)littlc,  because  lie  sustained  I'residrnt  Johnson's  veto  of  tlie  civil  rights  and  freedmen's 
bureau  bills,  and  urged  that  the  Southern  States  shoidd  at  once  be  re-admitted  to  representa- 
tion in  Congress.     iJoolitlle  paid  no  attention  to  the  demand,  and  finished  Iiis  term. 


SJ'O'JS    ON  THE   ESC C TCI/EON.  249 

claimed  to  be  the  owner  of  Glover,  and  his  official 
companions  were  there  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  by  capturing  the  runaway. 
There  was  a  desperate  tussle,  in  which  Glover  was 
badly  cut  up,  the  inevitable  result  being  that  the 
poor  negro  was  placed  in  irons,  thrown  into  an 
open  wagon,  and  carried  off  across  country  to  Mil- 
waukee. The  night  was  bitterly  cold,  and  to  add 
to  his  miseries  the  fugitive  was  frequently  kicked 
and  beaten  on  the  way,  by  the  brutish  Missourian, 
who  lost  no  opportunity  of  threatening  him  with 
more  serious  punishment  upon  his  return  to  the 
old  plantation. 

The  slave-takers  had  at  first  headed  for  Racine 
with  their  prey,  but  upon  reflection  that  there  was 
a  considerable  abolition  party  there,  turned  around 
and  drove  northward  towards  Milwaukee,  taking  a 
roundabout  tour  in  order  to  avoid  the  main  high- 
way. It  was  early  morning  before  they  reached 
their  destination,  and  the  maltreated  black  man, 
now  weak  from  loss  of  blood  and  stiffened  in  cold, 
was  thrown  into  the  county  jail.  A  half-dozen 
hours  later,  a  surgeon  had  the  humanity  to  par- 
tially dress  his  wounds. 

The  Wisconsin  Free  Democrat,  a  small  news- 
paper in  Milwaukee,  was  edited  by  Sherman  M. 
Booth,  a  prominent  local  character  in  the  ranks  of 
the    "Free-Soil"    Democracv.     An    intense    aboH- 


250  SPOTS   ON   2'HE   ESCUTCHEON. 

tionist,  he  was  among  the  first  to  learn  of  the 
Glover  affair,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  that  morning- 
was  busily  engaged  in  getting  together  a  public 
indignation  meeting.  Riding  up  and  down  the 
streets  upon  a  horse,  he  shouted  :  "  Freemen,  to 
the  rescue!  "  and  distributed  hand-bills  turned  out 
at  his  printing-office,  giving  the  news  and  calling 
upon  the  people  to  assemble  at  the  county  court- 
house. 

Meanwhile  there  was  great  excitement  in  Racine, 
where  the  Free-Soilers  had  been  informed  of  the 
arrest  by  one  of  the  negroes  present  at  the  affair. 
It  was  supposed  at  first  that  the  captors  and  their 
victim  were  hiding  at  Racine,  and  search-parties 
were  sent  out  by  authority  of  a  public  indignation 
meeting,  to  beat  the  town.  When  the  news  came 
from  Milwaukee  that  Glover  was  in  that  city,  the 
sheriff  of  Racine  County  summoned  a  posse.  A 
lake  steamer  with  about  one  hundred  Racine  peo- 
ple on  board  was  soon  en  route  to  the  scene  of 
action,  arriving  in  Milwaukee  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon. 

Booth's  meeting  had  been  a  great  success.  Gen. 
James  H.  Paine,  Dr.  \\.  W.  Wolcott,  Franklin  J. 
lilair.  Booth  and  other  liberty  men  made  impas- 
sioned speeches,  and  resolutions  were  adoi)tcd  in- 
sisting on  (ilover's  rij^ht  to  a  writ  of  habeas  eorpus 
and  a  trial  by  jiir)'.      A  vigilance  connnittee  was  ap- 


SPOTS   ON   'J HE   ESCUTCHEON.  251 

pointed  to  see  tliat  the  negro  was  not  spirited  away. 
The  writ,  however,  which  was  issued  by  a  local 
judge,  would  be  obeyed  neither  by  the  United 
States  district  judge,  A.  G.  Miller,  who  had  issued 
the  warrant  for  Glover's  arrest,  nor  by  the  Milwau- 
kee sheriff.  Upon  receiving  this  news,  the  crowd 
at  the  court  house,  now  reinforced  by  the  Racine 
delegation,  became  furious  in  spirit.  Marching  to 
the  jail,  inspired  by  the  clang  of  the  court  house 
bell,  the  people  demanded  the  prisoner.  Upon  be- 
ing refused  by  the  United  States  deputy  marshal 
in  charge,  they  at  once  attacked  the  weak  structure 
with  axes,  beams  and  crow-bars,  rescued  Glover  just 
at  sunset  and  sent  him  off  in  haste  to  the  neigh- 
boring village  of  Waukesha,  where  his  wounds 
were  properly  attended  to.  The  poor  fellow  was 
soon  back  in  Racine  and  shortly  after  was  enabled 
to  escape  to  the  free  soil  of  Canada. 

Booth  was  promptly  arrested  for  aiding  in  the 
escape  of  a  fugitive  slave,  but  the  State  supreme 
court  discharged  him  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 
He  was  thereupon  indicted  in  the  United  States 
district  court  in  July,  but  the  supreme  court  of  the 
State  again  interfered  in  his  favor.  The  first  time, 
the  decision  of  Chief  Justice  Whiton  was,  that  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act  was  "  unconstitutional  and 
void  "  inasmuch  as  it  conferred  judicial  powers  on 
court    commissioners,    and    deprived    the    alleged 


252  SPOTS   ON  7 HE   ESCUIVHEON. 

fugitive  of  the  right  of  trial  by  jury;  the  second 
decision  was,  that  the  warrant  of  arrest  was 
irregular. 

The  language  adopted  by  the  chief  justice  in  his 
first  decision,  was  severe.  Mr.  Justice  Smith,  in 
his  concurring  opinion,  held,  in  much  stronger 
terms,  that  the  act  of  Congress  was  unconstitu- 
tional for  the  reason  that  "Congress  has  no  consti- 
tutional power  to  legislate  upon  that  subject."  In 
speaking  of  the  attempted  enforcement  of  the  act 
by  United  States  marshals,  independent  of  the 
State  courts,  he  said  —  and  it  is  instructive  to  read 
his  words  in  connection  with  Wisconsin's  previous 
attitude  on  the  question  of  State  sovereignty 
during  the  boundary  dispute: 

"  Every  day's  experience  ought  to  satisfy  all  that 
the  States  never  will  quietly  submit  to  be  disrobed 
of  their  sovereignty  ;  submit  to  the  humiliation  of 
having  the  execution  of  this  compact  forced  upon 
them,  or  rather  taken  out  of  their  hands  by  national 
functionaries  ;  and  that,  too,  on  the  avowed  ground 
that  they  are  so  utterly  wanting  in  integrity  and 
good  faith  that  it  can  be  executed  in  no  other  way. 
On  the  contrary,  if  the  federal  go\'crnment  would 
abstain  from  interference,  the  States  would  ade- 
quately fulfill  all  their  duties  in  the  premises,  and 
peace  and  ordt-r  would  be  restored, 

"  pHit  they  will  never  consent  that  a  slave-owner, 


SPOTS    ON   THE   ESCUTCHEON.  253 

his  acj-ent  or  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  armed 
with  process  to  arrest  a  fugitive  from  service,  is 
clothed  with  entire  immunity  from  State  author- 
ity ;  to  commit  whatever  crime  or  outrage  against 
the  laws  of  the  State,  that  their  own  high  preroga- 
tive writ  of  habeas  corptis  shall  be  annulled,  their 
authority  defied,  their  officers  resisted,  the  process 
of  their  own  courts  contemned,  their  territory  in- 
vaded by  federal  force,  the  houses  of  their  citizens 
searched,  the  sanctuary  of  their  homes  invaded, 
their  streets  and  public  places  made  the  scene  of 
tumultuous  and  armed  violence,  and  State  sover- 
eignty succumb,  paralyzed  and  aghast,  before  the 
process  of  an  officer  unknown  to  the  constitution, 
and  irresponsible  to  its  sanctions.  At  least,  such 
shall  not  become  the  desfradation  of  Wisconsin, 
without  meeting  as  stern  remonstrance  and  resist- 
ance as  I  may  be  able  to  interpose,  so  long  as  her 
people  impose  upon  me  the  duty  of  guarding  their 
rights  and  liberties,  and  of  maintaining  the  dignity 
and  sovereignty  of  their  State." 

The  United  States  supreme  court,  however,  re- 
versed the  action  of  the  State  court,  and  Booth  was 
re-arrested  in  i860,  being  soon  pardoned  by  the 
President.  As  for  Garland,  he  was  arrested  in 
Racine  for  assault  and  battery,  but  was  released  on 
a  writ  of  habeas  corptcs  issued  by  Judge  Miller  at 
Milwaukee,   and    hurried    home,  from    whence    he 


254  SPOTS    ON  THE   ESCUTCHEON. 

entered  unsuccessful  suits  against  several  citizens 
of  Racine  for  aiding  in  Glover's  escape.  The 
Racine  men  who  helped  him  in  the  assault  on  the 
slave,  were  made  to  suffer  in  many  ways  by  their 
indignant  fellow-townsmen,  and  that  city  became  a 
fiercer  hot-bed  of  abolition  than  ever.  Several 
times  after  the  Glover  episode,  its  people  were 
engaged  in  assisting  slaves  to  escape  on  the  "  under- 
ground railroad,"  but  fortunately  had  no  further 
occasion  to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands  in 
the  defense  of  human  liberty. 

In  1857,  as  a  result  of  the  Glover  affair,  the 
legislature  passed  an  act  "  to  prevent  kidnapping," 
by  making  it  the  duty  of  district  attorneys  in  each 
county  "  to  use  all  lawful  means  to  protect,  defend, 
and  procure  to  be  discharged  .  .  .  every  per- 
son arrested  or  claimed  as  a  fugitive  slave,"  and 
throwing  around  the  poor  bondsman  every  possible 
safeguard.  This  was  Wisconsin's  protest  against 
the  iniquity  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act. 

The  Fox  and  Wisconsin  River  improvement 
enterprise  was  an  important  clement  in  legislation 
for  many  years.  We  have  seen  how  useful  and 
necessary  to  the  early  French  explorers  was  this 
natural  highway  connecting  the  waters  of  the  Great 
Lakes  with  those  of  the  Mississippi.  These  two 
streams — the  waters  of  tlic  one  l^eing  eventually 
minirlet]  with  tlie   Atlantic,  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 


SrO'JS    ON  THE   ESCUTCIIEOX.  255 

rence,  and  the  waters  of  the  other  pouring  into  the 
far-distant  Gulf  of  Mexico  —  approach  each  other 
in  the  heart  of  Wisconsin,  a  boggy  plain  but  a  mile 
and  a  half  in  vvidtli  separating  them  at  the  present 
city  of  Portage.  The  early  means  for  transporta- 
tion across  this  little  neck  of  land  were  ample 
enough  in  the  primitive  da},s  of  the  missionary,  the 
fur-trader  and  the  frontier  soldier.  But  with  the 
larger  transactions  incident  to  the  increase  of  popu- 
lation, the  necessity  for  portage  became  a  serious 
drawback  to  commercial  enterprise  along  these 
waterways. 

The  first  American  settlers  at  Green  Bay  saw 
this,  and  as  early  as  October,  1829,  a  meeting  was 
held  there,  and  resolutions  were  adopted  asking 
Congress  to  dig  a  canal  across  the  plain,  so  that 
heavily-laden  boats  could  readily  pass  from  one 
river  to  the  other  at  all  seasons.  It  has  already 
been  pointed  out  that  in  exceptionally  wet  periods, 
the  plain  was  wont  to  be  flooded,  so  that  water 
from  the  Wisconsin  flowed  over  into  the  Fox,  and 
canoes  could  make  the  through  trip  without  unlad- 
ing. Indeed,  this  very  feat  had  been  accomplished 
in  1828,  by  the  Fifth  Regiment  of  United  States 
infantry,  which  proceeded  from  St.  Louis  to  Green 
Bay  without  once  necessarily  getting  out  of  their 
Durham  boats — a  fact  which  had  suooested  the 
public  meeting  alluded  to. 


256  SPOTS   ON   THE  ESCUTCHEON. 

But  Congress  did  nothing  at  tlie  tinie.  In  1S39, 
however,  the  enterprise  began  to  move.  That  sea- 
son a  government  engineer  investigated  the  project 
of  improving  both  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  Rivers 
so  as  to  admit  of  regular  traffic  for  large  boats,  and 
of  uniting  them  by  canal.  Seven  years  later,  Con- 
o-ress  made  a  2;rant  of  land  to  Wisconsin  to  aid  in 
forwarding  the  canal  and  the  Fox  River  improve- 
ment alone  —  this  grant  covering  every  odd-num- 
bered section  within  three  miles  of  the  canal,  the 
river  and  the  intervening  lakes,  en  rcnttc  from  Port- 
age to  Green  Bay,  a  distance  by  water  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  miles.  On  the  eighth  of 
August,  1848,  the  new  State  appointed  a  board  of 
public  works  for  carrying  the  scheme  into  effect. 
But  the  board  soon  ran  the  undertaking  into  debt  and 
was  obliged  to  report  to  the  legislature,  in  January, 
1S51,  thnt  the  work  would  have  to  stop  on  account 
of  the  slow  sales  of  land.  One  of  the  chief  sources 
of  trouble  was.  that  meml)ers  of  the  board  allowed 
themselves  to  be  influenced  by  legislators,  each  of 
whom  wanted  a  portion  of  the  money  spent  in  his 
district  without  regard  to  the  comnion  need  ;  this 
course  had  well-nigh  bankrupted  the  enterprise. 

At  this  (M-itical  juncture,  an  enterprising  and 
piil;li(;-si)iiiled  eiti/en  of  Oi-een  Uay,  Morgan  L. 
Martin,  olTei-ed  to  do  the  work  from  (ireen  Bay  to 
Lake    Winnebago,   except   what   was  already  done 


SPOTS   ON  THE   ESCUTCHEON.  259 

or  contracted  for  —  the  canal  at  Portage  having 
already  been  dug. 

Upon  the  acceptance  by  the  legislature,  of  this 
proposition,  Martin  commenced  his  task  with  a 
large  force  of  men,  being  given  State  scrip  as  the 
undertaking  progressed,  to  be  redeemed  from  the 
sale  of  lands  and  from  the  tolls  on  the  work.  This 
was  in  1851,  the  last  year  of  Governor  Dewey's  term. 
But  in  January  following,  Leonard  J.  Farwell  be- 
came the  chief  executive,  and  he  hastened  to  inform 
the  legislature  that  the  Martin  contract  was  uncon- 
stitutional, at  the  same  time  declining  to  pay  over 
an  instalment  of  scrip  already  earned.  The  legis- 
lature ordered  otherwise,  and  the  governor  was 
finally  compelled  to  yield. 

In  the  early  months  of  1853,  in  order  to  relieve 
the  State  from  any  implied  obligation  in  the  affair, 
the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  Improvement  Company 
was  organized  by  Martin,  and  to  it  was  transferred 
the  entire  work.  The  Improvement  Company  went 
on  with  its  operations  until  1856,  when  the  first  boat, 
the  Aquila,  passed  through  the  works,  en  route 
from  Pittsburg  to  Green  Bay,  and  soon  thereafter 
several  steamboats  made  regular  trips  along  the 
lower  reaches  of  the  river.  In  1854-55,  Congress 
increased  the  land  grant  to  the  company,  so  that 
the  entire  gift  was  now  estimated  at  nearlv  seven 
hundred     thousand     acres.       At     the     same     time 


26o  SPOTS   ON  THE    ESCUTCHEON. 

the  legislature,  after  several  years  of  wrangling, 
authorized  an  increase  of  stock  to  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  But  it  now  became  neces- 
sary to  seek  outside  capital  in  order  to  float  so  large 
an  enterprise.  Several  New  Yorkers,  among  whom 
were  Horatio  Seymour,  Erastus  Corning  and  Hiram 
Barney,  bought  into  the  company  and  were  soon 
its  leading  spirits.  In  iS66  the  institution  was 
foreclosed,  the  New  York  capitalists  became  the 
owners,  and  the  corporate  title  was  changed  to  the 
Green  Bay  and  Mississippi  Canal  Company.  They 
engaged  the  services  of  government  engineers,  and 
in  October,  1872,  sold  the  plant  to  the  United 
States.  Three-cornered  lawsuits  between  the  gov- 
ernment, the  New  York  men  and  Martin  were  upon 
the  calendars  of  the  Wisconsin  courts  for  many 
years  after  this  transfer,  and  were  never  satisfacto- 
rily adjusted. 

The  Fox-Wisconsin  improvement  has  cost  the 
State  and  the  nation  millions  of  dollars,  but  has 
never  been  a  complete  success.  The  Lower  Fox- 
has,  by  means  of  an  elaborate  system  of  locks,  been 
made  navigal^le  for  boats  of  a  few  feet  draught, 
between  Green  Bay  and  Omro  ;  but  the  traffic  is 
slight,  the  chief  advantage  accruing  to  the  thrifty 
manufacturing  towns  of  Neenah,  Menasha,  Apple- 
ton,  Kaukauna  and  Ocpcrc,  where  splendid  water- 
powers  have  \)(iv\\  iiicidrnlly  developed  by  the  gov- 


sro'rs  ON  the  escutcheon.         261 

ernment  works.  From  Omro  to  Portaw  there 
is  a  slight,  spasmodic  freight  traffic  for  small  flat- 
bottomed  steamers  of  not  over  three  feet  draught. 
The  canal  at  Portage,  fast  falling  into  decay,  is 
sometimes  not  opened  throughout  an  entire  season. 
The  Wisconsin  River  is  clogged  with  shifting  sand- 
bars and  wholly  unreliable  for  vessels  of  three-feet 
draught,  except  in  high  water.  It  is  seldom  used, 
now  that  logging  on  the  Upper  Wisconsin  has  been 
greatly  reduced  in  extent ;  and  a  government  engi- 
neer has  made  the  assertion  that  the  only  way  to 
"  improve  "  it  for  a  national  waterway,  is  to  "  either 
lath-and-plaster  the  bottom  or  construct  a  canal 
alongside,  all  the  way  from  Portage  to  Prairie  du 
Chien." 

In  early  days,  there  was  no  doubt  whatever  in  the 
minds  of  the  Wisconsin  public,  that  this  projected 
improvement,  apparently  so  feasible,  could  be  easily 
constructed  and  the  historic  streams  be  made 
to  bear  monster  war  and  freioht  vessels  through  the 
heart  of  the  State,  between  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  great  river  artery  of  the  continent ;  but  it  is 
now  the  general  opinion  that  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  are  too  great  to  be  overcome,  chiefly  owing  to 
the  peculiar  character  of  the  Wisconsin  River,  and 
"  improvement  talk,"  so  common  a  dozen  or  more 
years  ago,  is  now  no  longer  heard  in  our  legisla- 
tures and  political  conventions. 


262  SPOTS    ON  THE   ESCUTCHEON. 

There  were  several  railway  companies  chartered 
in  Wisconsin  in  Territorial  days,*  but  the  Milwau- 
kee &  Waukesha  was  the  only  one  of  these  that 
materialized ;  for,  although  there  was  always  en- 
ergy enough  in  this  backwoods  commonwealth, 
there  was  for  many  years  a  scarcity  of  money.  The 
men  who  built  Wisconsin  came  West  to  earn  their 
fortunes  and  had  not  yet  won  them.  The  charter 
for  the  Milwaukee  &  Waukesha  had  been  granted 
by  the  legislature  early  in  1S47.  Subscription 
books  were  opened  in  February  of  the  following 
year.  A  year  later  the  name  was  changed  to  the 
Milwaukee  &  Mississippi,  and  in  1851  the  rails 
were  actually  laid  and  a  train  run  from  Milwaukee 
to  W^aukesha,  a  distance  of  twenty  miles.  This 
was  the  pioneer  Wisconsin  railway,  and  there  was 
great  popular  rejoicing  over  an  accomplishment 
which  was  to  prove  to  the  world  that  the  Badger 
State  proposed  to  be  a  progressive  community. 
Three  years  after,  the  iron  way  had  reached  the 
capita],  and  in  1856  the  Mississippi  River.  Thus 
the  proposed  span  was  complete,  the  State  being 
now  crossed  from  Milwaukee  to  Prairie  du  Chien 
by  what  came  in  after  years  to  be  the  great  Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul. 

Meanwhile   (jther  lines  were  pushing  out.     The 


•A  public  mccliiiK  wns  held  in  Milwiuikeo  iis  cnrly  as  1836,  to  nsk  the  legislature  to  Rraiit 
a  charter  for  n  railway  from  Milwaukee  to  I'rairic  (\\\  Chien, 


SJ07S    OA    THE   ESCU2CHE0N.  263 

then  infant  Chicago  «&  Northwestern  had  pene- 
trated the  State,  reaching  Janesville  from  the 
southeast  in  1855,  and  Fond  du  Lac  in  1858. 
Many  were  the  short  local  spurs,  built  between 
this  period  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion, 
which  were  finally  absorbed,  extended  and  ramified 
by  the  larger  companies.  After  the  close  of  the 
war,  there  was  a  revival  of  railway  enterprises, 
which  has,  with  its  ups  and  downs,  lasted  into  our 
own  day,  until  now  there  are  few  States  in  the 
Union  better  provided  with  roads  of  steel  than 
Wisconsin,  in  proportion  to  population.  At  the 
close  of  the  year  1889,  the  railway  commissioner 
reported  5,390  miles  of  track  within  the  State,  of 
which  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  operated 
1,310,  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  946,  and  the 
Wisconsin  Central  641. 

To  aid  in  the  construction  of  railways  in  Wis- 
consin, Congress  made  two  liberal  grants  of  land, 
in  June,  1856.  One  was  for  the  building  of  a  line 
from  either  Madison  or  Columbus,  via  Portage  City 
and  St.  Croix  River,  to  Bayfield  on  the  shores  of 
Lake  Superior;  and  the  other  for  a  line  stretching 
northward  from  Fond  du  Lac  to  somewhere  on  the 
Michigan  State  line.  "  Every  alternate  section  of 
land  designated  by  odd  numbers  for  six  sections  in 
width,  on  each  side  of  said  roads  respectively," 
was  to  be   given    to    the    companies    constructing 


264  SPOTS    OX   THE   ESCUTCHEON. 

them.  In  the  fall  of  that  year  the  legislature 
accepted  these  grants  from  the  general  govern- 
ment, and  immediately  there  began  a  wild  struggle 
among  the  railroad  men  to  capture  the  prizes. 
The  law-makers,  with  a  show  of  impartiality,  decided 
not  to  give  thL'  lands  thus  acquired  from  Congress 
to  any  of  the  corporations  already  organized,  but 
to  charter  two  new  companies,  one  for  each  of  the 
contemplated  lines.  The  grant  for  the  road  to 
Lake  Superior  was  finally  voted  to  a  corpora- 
tion styled  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad 
Company,  called  into  being  by  special  legislative 
act.  The  orrant  for  the  road  to  run  out  of  Fond 
du  Lac,  was  given  to  another  specially-created 
corporation  entitled  the  Wisconsin  &  Superior 
Raih'oad  Company.  In  popular  estimation,  these 
companies  were  new  in  name  only,  for  what  came 
to  be  known  as  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St. 
Paul  was  alleged  to  be  at  the  back  of  the  one,  and 
what  grew  into  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  was 
said  to  be  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  other.  It  was 
not  long  after  the  passage  of  the  act,  before  the 
grantees  were  "absorbed"  by  the  old  corporations; 
but  it  was  many  years  before  the  contemplated 
lines  were  comi)]eted,  and  grave  legal  complications 
afterwards  arose  as  to  the  lighlful  ownership  of 
the  grants. 

This  disposal    of   llu'   land   grants  b\'  the   legisla- 


S/'O'JS    ON   THE    ESCC'lCHhOA.  265 

tare  of  1856,  gave  rise  to  popular  charges  of  cor- 
ruption, especially  in  relation  to  the  La  Crosse  &: 
Milwaukee  deal.  At  the  session  of  1858,  the 
matter  was  investigated  by  a  special  joint  com- 
mittee, which  made  a  report  to  the  effect  that  "  The 
managers  of  the  La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Rail- 
road  Company  have  been  guilty  of  numerous  and 
unparalleled  acts  of  mismanagement,  gross  viola- 
tions of  duty,  fraud  and  plunder."  The  investiga- 
tors also  reported  that  the  legislature  of  1856  had 
been  bribed  by  wholesale  ;  that  thirteen  of  the 
seventeen  senators  who  voted  for  the  grant  to  this 
company  had  received  from  ten  thousand  to 
twenty  thousand  dollars  in  either  stock  or  bonds, 
at  par,  while  fifty-eight  of  the  sixty-two  affirma- 
tive assemblymen  had  received  from  five  thousand 
to  ten  thousand  dollars  each  in  the  same  paper. 
As  to  the  2:overnor  then  in  office,  Coles  Bashford 
—  whose  bitter  struggle  with  Barstow  has  already 
been  alluded  to — the  committee  did  not  hesitate 
to  affirm  that  he,  too,  had  been  "  propitiated  "  by 
fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  (^f  bonds,  in  considera- 
tion of  his  official  approval  of  the  act ;  that  three 
other  State  officers  had  received,  as  hush  money, 
ten  thousand  dollars  each,  and  the  governor's 
private  secretary  five  thousand  dollars. 

The   report  of  the  committee  created  intense  in- 
dio:nation  throuijhout  Wisconsin,  while  the  amount 


266  SPOTS   ON  THE   ESCUTCHEON. 

of  advertising  which  the  State  obtained  in  con- 
sequence, in  the  Eastern  press,  was  not  of  a 
character  calculated  to  help  it  in  popular  estima- 
tion. It  is  proper  to  chronicle  that  several  of  the 
alleged  beneficiaries  of  this  railroad  bribery  after- 
wards strenuously  denied  that  they  had  received 
compensation  for  their  official  acts.  Governor 
Bashford  soon  removed  from  Wisconsin  into  the 
Far  West,  common  report  having  it  that  he  had 
bee'n  shrewd  enough  to  cash  the  greater  portion  of 
his  bonds  at  once  ;  whereas  those  wlio  kept  their 
ill-gotten  paper  failed  to  realize  upon  it,  for  the 
La  Crosse  &  Milwaukee  Railroad  Company  never 
materialized,  and  its  promises  to  pay  were  soon  as 
valueless  as  soap-bubbles. 

Still  another  political  scandal  smirched  the  rec- 
ord of  the  first  decade  of  Wisconsin's  Statehood. 
For  several  years,  while  "  Barstow  and  tlic  Balance  " 
were  in  charge  of  public  affairs,  the  air  was  laden 
with  rumors  of  mismanagement  of  the  State  trust 
funds.  At  last,  in  September,  1856,  the  legislature 
appointed  a  sj)ecial  committee  "  to  investigate  the 
offices  of  the  state  treasurer,  secretary  of  state,  and 
school  and  university  land  commissioners  from  the 
commencement  of  the  State  government."  This 
cr)mmittee  rendered  an  elaborate  report. covering  the 
period  jirevions  to  the  preceding  January,  to  the  ef- 
fect that  almost  hopeless  confusion  was  found  in  the 


SPOTS   ON  THE   ESCUTCHEON.  267 

books  of  the  treasurer  and  the  land  commissioners ; 
that  State  officers  had  been  allowed  to  freely  take 
money  out  of  the  treasury  in  anticipation  of  their 
salaries,  leaving  only  memorandum  slips  in  the  cash 
drawer,  stating  the  amount  withdrawn;  that  Treas- 
urer Janssen  was  a  defaulter  to  the  general  fund,  on 
the  face  of  the  records,  to  the  extent  of  $31,318.54; 
that  the  school  and  State  university  trust  funds  had 
been  recklessly  loaned  out  on  insufficient  security 
to  friends  of  the  State  officials  —  in  short,  that  tens 
of  thousands  of  dollars  in  these  funds  had  in  many 
ways  been  "  lost  and  squandered  "  by  the  officials  in 
charge.  The  persons  thus  implicated  were  chiefly 
the  State  officers  under  Barstow,  and  all  except 
the  treasurer  at  once  sent  in  a  reply  to  the  legisla- 
ture, claiming  that  the  investigation  had  been  con- 
ducted with  prejudice,  and  the  condition  of  their 
accounts  grossly  exaggerated.  As  for  the  treas- 
urer, it  was  shown  that  his  assistant  was  really  to 
blame  for  all  irregularities,  but  the  deficiency  re- 
mains to  this  day  unsettled  on  the  books  of  his 
department.  Nothing  further  was  done  about  the 
unfortunate  affair,  each  party  to  the  controversy 
over  the  trust  funds  claiming  to  have  made  an 
unanswerable  statement.  Certain  it  is,  however, 
that  these  funds  had  by  some  means  been  sadly 
depleted,  and  for  many  years  the  educational  system 
of  the  State  greatly  suffered  in  consequence. 


268  SPOTS   ON  THE   ESCUTCHEON. 

Political  passion  ran  surprisingly  high  in  those 
first  eight  or  ten  years  of  the  State's  history.  It 
entered  into  the  every-day  affairs  of  life.  The  man 
who  was  opposed  to  one's  party,  was  an  enemy  to 
what  was  held  next  dearest  to  the  family  hearthstone. 
In  fact,  it  was  often  doubted  whether  a  citizen  so 
recreant  to  his  political  trust  could  be  strictly  hon- 
est, whether  he  was  worthy  of  either  patronage 
in  trade  or  social  recognition.  The  newspapers  of 
the  day  were  conducted  by  partisans  of  prominence  ; 
each  editorial  office  was  the  council  chamber  of 
a  knot  of  political  "  workers,"  in  which  schemes 
were  concocted  for  the  subversion  of  the  opposition 
cohorts,  and  the  leader-writer  communed  with  his 
backers  regarding  the  policy  of  the  journal  in  the 
pending  "  crisis  of  the  country's  history."  In  a 
time  when  the  fellows  on  the  other  side  of  the 
party  fence  were  dubbed  and  believed  to  be  rascals, 
on  general  principles,  it  is  perhaps  not  surprising 
that,  when  op])ortunity  occurred,  some  of  them  in 
office  deemed  it  desirable  to  "  have  the  game  as 
well  as  the  name,"  and  took  occasion  to  feather 
their  nests.  The  comnionwealth  was  in  a  forma- 
tive condition,  the  fever  of  speculation  was  rife, 
the  state  of  political  morals  throughout  the  nation 
was  just  then  none  of  the  l)est,  a  baneful  spirit  of 
unrest  was  in  the  air.  TIk-  atmosphere  needed 
clearin"-.      It  was  time  for  political  lines  to  be  re-ad- 


SJ'OTS    O.Y   THE   ESCUTCHEON.  269 

justed  and  a  healthier  tone  introduced.  The  in- 
solence of  the  slave  power  finally  made  a  clear- 
cut  national  issue.  With  the  introduction  of  a 
distinctly  moral  element  into  political  discussion, 
the  quality  of  public  service  was  noticeably  im- 
proved in  this  as  in  many  other  commonwealths  of 
the  North.  And  this  higher  tone  has  since  pre- 
vailed. It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  the  scandals  of 
the  early  fifties  will  ever  be  repeated  in  Wisconsin, 
whose  public  affairs  are  to-day  conducted  on  a  broad 
plane,  with  remarkable  enlightenment  and  purity. 


CHAPTER    X. 

WISCONSIN    ON    A    WAR    FOOTING. 

OVERNOR  Alexan- 
der W.  Randall  *  was 
entering  upon  his 
second  term  when 
he  addressed  the  leg- 
islature at  the  open- 
ing of  its  thirteenth 
session,  in  January, 
i860,  and  proudly 
pointed  to  the  fact 
that  the  finances  of  Wisconsin  were  never  in 
such  excellent  condition  ;  that,  unlike  most  new 
States,  it  had  paid  for  all  of  its  public  improvements, 
yet  had  not  contracted  a  i)ermanent  State  debt; 
that  there  was  no  lioating  debt  whatever,  and  in- 
stead a  handsome  balance  in  the  treasury.  The 
outlook  for  Wisconsin  was  assuredly  brilliant  just 
then,  so  far  as  statistics  showed.  Her  population 
that  sumnu-r  was  found  by  the  federal  census  to  be 
775,<S.S  I,  exhibiting  a  handsome  })ercentage  of  growth 

*  AflcTWiuds  postiiwislcr-Hciii  T.il  in    liihiison's  Lal)inct. 

270 


IVJSCONSIN   ON  A    JVAR   FOOTING.         27 1 

during  the  decade  ;  banks  were  thriving,  commerce 
was  in  a  healthy  condition,  the  educational  system 
had  at  last  been  placed  upon  a  good  footing,  most 
of  the  State  institutions  were  now  somethino-  to  be 
proud  of,  and  the  arts  of  industry  were  everywhere 
being  cultivated  with  profit. 

But  the  governor  as  well  as  many  other  thought- 
ful citizens  of  the  commonwealth,  knew  that  these 
fair  conditions  carried  with  them  but  slight  hope 
for  long  continuance,  for  the  oncoming  war  cloud 
was  even  then  visible  on  the  political  horizon  to 
those  who  could  read  the  signs  of  the  times.  As 
the  year  sped  on,  the  insurrectionary  aims  of  the 
slaveholders  became  more  and  more  apparent.  The 
result  of  the  general  election  in  November  was 
practically  an  announcement  to  the  South  upon  the 
part  of  the  North,  that  come  what  might  the  slave 
power  was  doomed,  Wisconsin  contributed  her 
full  share  to  this  verdict,  for  out  of  a  total  vote  of 
152,180  the  Lincoln  electors  were  chosen  by  a 
majority  of  21,089  over  the  Douglas  men. 

The  entire  staff  of  State  officials  were  republican, 
and  the  new  legislature  was  overwhelmingly  of  the 
same  party.  A  strong  Union  spirit  pervaded  every 
department  of  the  State  government,  and  the  gov- 
ernor's message  to  the  two  houses,  on  the  tenth  of 
January,  1861,  echoed  popular  sentiment  in  a  ring- 
ino-   if  somewhat  stilted,  denunciation  of  the  seces- 


272  IVJSCONSIN   ON  A    WAR   FOOTING. 

sion  idea.  "Wisconsin  is  true,"  he  said,  "  and  her 
people  steadfast.  She  will  not  destroy  the  Union 
nor  consent  that  it  shall  be  done.  Devised  by 
great  and  wise  and  good  men  in  days  of  sore  trial, 
it  must  stand.  Like  some  bold  mountain  at  whose 
base  the  great  seas  break  their  angry  floods,  around 
whose  summit  the  thunders  of  a  thousand  hurri- 
canes have  rattled,  strong,  unmoved,  immovable,  so 
mav  our  Union  be,  while  treason  surges  at  its  base 
and  passions  rage  around  it.  Unmoved,  immovable 
let  it  stand  forever  !  " 

The  legislature  fully  appreciated  the  gravity  of 
the  situation.  Quite  regardless  of  party  ties,  acts 
were  passed  early  in  the  session  providing  for 
the  defense  of  the  State,  and  authorizing  the  gov- 
ernor, in  case  war  should  be  declared,  to  at  once 
cooperate  with  the  national  authorities  in  preserv- 
ing the  integrity  of  the  Union.  The  governor  was 
o-iven  carte  blauchc  in  fact,  in  the  adoption  of  such 
measures  as  should  seem  appropriate  to  so  great  an 
emergency,  should  the  anticipated  insurrection 
break  out  during  the  vacation  of  the  legislature. 
The  sum  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
voted,  contingent  on  such  an  event,  for  the  fitting 
of  volunteers,  'i'hese  precautionary  proceedings 
were  sustained  with  enthusiasm  by  the  greater  por- 
tion of  tlic  ])copl<'  and  press  of  the  State,  regardless 
of   party  afhli.ilions. 


IVISCONSIN   ON  A    WAR   FOOTING. 


-^73 


On  the  eighteenth  of  February  occurred  what 
has  been  called"  the  first  victory  of  the  Rebellion." 
Gen.  David  E.  Twiggs,  in  command  of  the  depart- 
ment of  Texas,  that  day  formally  surrendered  to 
the  Confederacy,  at  San  Antonio,  all  of  the  United 
States  army  property  in  his  care,  amounting  to  a 
million  and  a  quarter  dollars.  Nineteen  posts  were 
delivered  up,  with  a  vast  quantity  of  military  stores, 
and  over  two  thousand  government  troops  were  re- 
moved on  parole.  This  shameful  betrayal  of  trust 
caused  intense  indignation  throughout  all  the  loyal 
States,  but  Wisconsin  pioneers  had  reason  to  be 
particularly  outspoken.  Twiggs,  as  major  of  the 
Fifth  U.  S.  infantry,  had  for  several  years  com- 
manded in  Wisconsin,  first  at  Fort  Howard  and  then 
at  Fort  Winnebago,  and  was  wtII  known  throughout 
the  Northwest.  In  1S28  he  built  Fort  Win- 
nebago, one  of  his  lieutenants  being  Jefferson 
Davis,  then  just  graduated  from  West  Point. 
Durino-  his  residence  in  Wisconsin,  Twiocrs  had 
come  to  be  generally  regarded  as  domineering, 
cruel  and  mercenary,  leaving  behind  him  an  un- 
savory reputation,  which  his  acknowledged  bravery 
in  the  Mexican  War  in  after  years  had  done  but 
little  to  efface.  Neither  had  Davis  acquired  any 
friends  at  the  frontier  posts,  while  serving  under 
Twiggs.  The  spectacle  of  these  two  Wisconsin 
military  pioneers  betraying  the  cause  of  the  Union 


2  74  WISCONSIN   ON  A     WAR    FOOTING. 

had  an  especially  melancholy  interest  for  Wiscon- 
sin men.  Had  Twiggs  not  played  traitor  and  thus 
given  a  local  impetus  to  the  cause  of  the  secession- 
ists, it  is  now  thought  that  Texas  would  have  de- 
clined to  withdraw  from  the  Union;  and  without 
Texas  it  is  doubtful  if  the  Confederacy  could  have 
long  held  together. 

After  making  all  the  preparations  then  consid- 
ered necessary,  the  legislature  adjourned  upon  Wed- 
nesday, April  seventeenth.  The  last  few  days  of 
the  session  had  been  exciting  enough.  Sunday 
morning.  Fort  Sumter  fell.  Monday,  President  Lin- 
coln issued  his  call  for  seventy-five  thousand  three- 
months'  volunteers  to  aid  in  executing  the  national 
laws  in  the  seceding  States.  Tuesday,  Governor 
Randall  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  urged  a 
prompt  response  upon  the  part  of  Wisconsin,  say- 
ino-  that  one  reiiiment  was  the  quota  of  the  State, 
and  giving  the  first  opportunity  for  enlistment  to 
existing  militia  organizations.  On  the  ninth  of 
January,  the  Madison  Guard,  a  local  militia  com- 
pany, had  tendered  its  services  to  the  governor  "  in 
case  those  services  might  be  required  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  y\merican  Union."  The  company 
was  liighly  coniplinu'ntcd  for  its  promptness,  at  the 
time,  and  when  the  governor  had  signed  his  procla- 
mation, on  the  sixteenth  of  April,  he  at  once  sent 
word  to  tlir    <a])tain,  accepting   the    tender.      Thus 


WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR  J'OO'JVNG.         275 

this  organization  was  the  first  to  enlist  in  Wiscon- 
sin, The  legislature  adjourned  on  Wednesday 
noon,  and  a  public  meeting,  in  which  democrats  as 
freely  joined  as  republicans,  was  at  once  held  in  the 
chamber  of  the  lower  house.  Patriotic  sonors  were 
sung  by  the  members,  employes,  lobbyists  and 
citizens  generally,  loyal  words  were  spoken,  the 
governor  was  heartily  cheered,  and  an  enthusiastic 
round  of  "  three  times  three  "  was  oriven  to  the  tral- 
lant  little  band  which  had  first  responded  to  the 
call  for  help.  The  Governor's  Guard,  another 
Madison  company,  had  by  this  time  also  offered  its 
services,  and  while  the  meeting  was  yet  in  progress 
the  telegraph  lines  were  crowded  with  similar  offers 
of  help  from  Milwaukee  and  other  cities  through- 
out the  State. 

News  of  the  coming  fray  came  in  thick  and  fast, 
now.  The  following  day,  the  Virginia  convention 
resolved  to  cast  the  fortunes  of  the  Old  Dominion 
with  the  Confederacy.  One  by  one  most  of  the 
other  slave  States  wheeled  into  line  under  the 
banner  of  secession.  On  the  nineteenth  of  April 
occurred  the  Baltimore  riots  and  the  first  shedding 
of  blood.  On  the  twenty-second,  the  First  Wiscon- 
sin regiment  of  eight  hundred  men,  chiefly  a  com- 
bination of  the  old  militia  companies  recruited  up 
to  the  standard,  was  thoroughly  organized,  and  the 
War  Department   in   Washington  notified    to  that 


276          WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR   lOOTING. 

effect.  The  soldiers  went  into  camp  at  Milwaukee 
on  the  twenty-seventh,  and  upon  the  seventeenth  of 
May  were  mustered  into  the  United  States  service 
for  three  months. 

So  intense  was  the  war  spirit  throughout  the 
State,  that  Governor  Randall  soon  had  an  embar- 
rassment of  riches  on  his  hands.  Within  seven 
days  after  his  proclamation  was  issued,  thirty-six 
companies  had  volunteered.  The  governor,  anx- 
ious that  the  commonwealth  should  be  well  rep- 
resented in  the  field,  asked  the  War  Department 
for  permission  to  raise  more  regiments,  complain- 
ing that  Illinois,  with  not  quite  double  the  popula- 
tion of  Wisconsin,  had  been  asked  for  six  regi- 
ments. But  the  general  government  had  not  yet 
come  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the  scope  of  its  giant 
undertaking;  Secretary  of  War  Cameron  replied 
that  one  regiment  was  all  that  was  needed  from 
Wisconsin,  suggesting  that  any  enlistments  beyond 
this  force  be  cancelled.  The  energetic  governor, 
however,  was  not  disposed  to  acton  this  advice,  and 
set  about  grouping  his  surplus  companies  into  re- 
serve regiments,  declaring  his  confidence  that  they 
would  be  needed  soon.  And  thus  were  the  Second, 
Third  and  Fourth  regiments  organized  and  ready 
to  rendezvous  in  camp,  before  the  government  had 
cx])rcssed  a  desire  for  them. 

The  jx'oplc  of  tlu'  North  were  not  skilled  in  the 


WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR   FOOTING.         277 

arts  of  war,  in  those  early  days  of  the  Rebellion. 
There  had  been  a  long  period  of  peace  and  but 
few  had  meanwhile  dreamed  that  the  national  life 
would  again  be  in  peril.  The  far-scattered  militia 
companies  were  maintained  for  holiday  display,  and 
were  but  toy  organizations  compared  with  the 
sturdy,  well-equipped  National  Guard  of  the  pres- 
ent. The  sudden  outburst  of  1861  found  our 
people  ill  prepared  for  carrying  on  a  great  strug- 
gle like  this.  There  was  no  lack  of  patriotism,  no 
lack  of  willingness,  and  at  first  no  lack  of  men  or 
funds.  But  there  was  no  organization.  Confusion 
was  universal.  Every  one  seemed  to  be  mak- 
ing false  movements  and  the  leaders  were  work- 
ing at  cross-purposes.  There  was  an  insufficiency 
of  stores,  of  clothing,  food  and  military  equipage; 
the  early  regiments  went  to  the  front  with  oddly- 
shaped  garments  in  all  shades  of  gray,  often 
were  obliged  to  wait  weeks  and  months  for  their 
arms,  and  frequently  suffered  from  bad  management 
in  the  commissariat.  Wisconsin  troops  had  their 
share  of  such  experiences,  despite  the  efforts  of  the 
hard-working  governor,  who  labored  heroically  for 
the  cause  in  which  his  heart  was  wrapped.  He 
sent  agents  to  Washington  to  gather  information 
relative  to  the  proper  handling  and  outfitting  of  his 
volunteers,  issued  frequent  proclamations  to  the 
people  of  the  State  informing  them  of  the  situation 


278  WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR   FOOTING. 

of  affairs,  organized  the  women  in  their  noble  work 
of  aiding  the  army,  inspired  public  meetings  by 
patriotic  addresses,  personally  supervised  the  de- 
tails of  management,  and  conducted  an  extensive 
correspondence  with  the  national  authorities  and 
his  fellow  State  executives;  he  attended  and  ad- 
dressed a  conference  of  governors  of  Western  and 
border  States  held  in  Cleveland  on  the  third  of  May, 
being  selected  to  lay  before  the  President  the  con- 
clusions of  that  important  conference. 

It    was    on    this    same    third    of    May  that   Lin- 
coln issued  his  second  call  for   \olunteers,  now  de- 
siring   fortv-two    thousand    for   three    years.      Wis- 
consin's quota  under  this  levy  was  two   regiments. 
As    there    were    enough    companies    on    the    rolls 
for  ten,  Randall  agaiii  strenuously  insisted  on  beino- 
given  the  privilege  to  send  more.      Secretarv  Came^ 
ron  was  firm,  however,  and  so  onl}-  the  Second  and 
Third  regiments  were  mustered  in    for    three  years 
and  handed    over   to    the  (TOvcM-nment   for   service. 
lUill     Run    c()n\-inced     the    authorities     at     Wash- 
ington that  the  war  was  a  serious  thing,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  calls  for  more  troops  were  plentiful. 
The    First    (three-months'    men),    which    had   been' 
sent  to  Ilarrisburg,  Pa.,  in  June,  and  had  had  a  l^rief, 
sharp  brush  with  the  cu'iny  at  b'alling  Waters,  was 
reorganized    as  a  ihi-ee-years'    regiment  in   August. 
Pjy  the  close  of  the  year,  fifteen  regiments  of  infan- 


WJSCONSIN   ON  A    WAR   FOOTJNG.         281 

try  had  been  formed  within  the  State,  at  the  cen- 
tral camps  in  Milwaukee,  Madison,  Fond  du  Lac 
and  Racine,  while  five  more  were  being  raised; 
besides  these,  were  two  regiments  of  cavalry,  a 
number  of  sharpshooters  and  seven  batteries  of 
artillery.  Wisconsin's  quota  had  been  placed  at 
twenty  thousand,  but  she  had  thus  far  exceeded  that 
number  by  over  three  thousand. 

On  the  ninth  of  May,  the  governor  issued  a  call 
for  a  special  session  of  the  legislature,  which  con- 
vened on  the  fifteenth  and  continued  for  twelve 
days,  during  which  vigorous  measures  were  adopted 
pertaining  to  the  military  exigencies  of  the  hour. 
From  this  time  forward,  the  Wisconsin  legislature 
could  always  be  relied  upon  to  advance  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Union  by  prompt  and  liberal  appropri- 
ations. The  most  rigid  economy  was  forced  in 
every  department  of  the  State  government,  but 
there  was  ever  money  enough  to  aid  in  the  prose- 
cution of  the  war,  and  the  State's  quota  of  troops 
was  always  more  than  full. 

It  was  not  without  a  desperate  struggle  that 
the  financial  situation  was  maintained  unimpaired. 
The  day  that  Sumter  had  been  fired  upon,  the  Wis- 
consin bank  circulation  amounted  to  some  four 
millions  of  dollars,  over  one  half  of  which  was 
secured  by  the  bonds  of  either  Southern  or  border 
States      The    outbreak    of    the    war,    though    the 


282  IVJSCOASJN   ON  A    WAA   lOOTING. 

trouble  was  at  first  thought  to  be  but  temporary,  at 
once  sent  these  securities  far  below  par,  and  disaster 
stared  the  bankers  in  the  face.  The  bank  comp- 
troller was  powerless  to  stem  the  current,  and  the 
legislature  hastened  to  adopt  measures  which  were 
intended  to  postpone  disaster.  But  in  spite  of 
official  assistance,  within  two  weeks  twenty-two 
banks  had  refused  to  redeem  their  bills  and  had 
been  discredited.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  April, 
the  bankers  held  a  State  convention,  discredited 
eighteen  more  weak  concerns,  and  agreed  to  receive 
the  issues  of  seventy  specified  banks  until  the  first 
of  December  following,  when  an  amended  banking 
law  was  to  go  into  effect.  Business,  which  had 
been  nearly  paralyzed,  again  revived  and  public 
confidence  was  apparently  restored.  But  dissen- 
sions soon  arose  among  the  banks,  the  strong 
declining  to  any  longer  bolster  up  the  weak. 
The  Milwaukee  bankers  therefore  met  on  the  even- 
ing of  iM-ida)',  June  21,  and  as  a  measure  of  self- 
])reservation  threw  out  ten  banks  from  the  list  of 
seventy.  The  notice  of  this  action  was  not  pub- 
lished until  after  banking  hours  of  Saturday,  by 
which  time  the  laborers  of  the  city  had  generally 
l)een  ])aid  their  week's  wages.  The  workmen  found 
that  a  consideral^le  ])ortion  of  the  bills  they  had  re- 
ceived were  the  issues  of  the  ten  discredited  banks. 
Not  understanding  that  a  regard  for  the  public  wel- 


WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR  FOOTING.         2S3 


fare  had  caused  the  heaving  overboard  of  these 
financial  Jonahs,  the  men  considered  themselves 
defrauded.  On  Monday  morning  an  excited  mob 
stormed  the  banks  with  bricks  and  paving  stones. 
MitchelTs  bank,  the  State  Bank  of  Wisconsin  and 
the  brokers'  ofifices  received  the  worst  injuries,  the 
loss  in  furniture  and  windows  amounting  to  about 
four  thousand  dollars.  Business  was  suspended 
throughout  the  city  during  the  entire  week,  and  it 
was  a  month  before  the  stream  of  commerce  again 
flowed  smoothly.  The  holders  of  the  paper  of  the 
discredited  banks  were  eventually  reimbursed  ;  and 
by  the  close  of  the  year  an  arrangement  was  made 
between  the  Milwaukee  financiers  and  the  State 
government,  by  which  the  worthless  Southern  bonds 
were  sold  and  replaced  by  State  bonds,  and  all  bank- 
bills  not  previously  retired  from  circulation  were 
once  more  received  at  par. 

Public  interest,  however,  was  chiefly  centered  in 
the  conduct  of  the  civil  war,  and  there  was  but 
little  time  for  the  consideration  of  any  other  form 
of  business  than  that  of  the  gigantic  struggle  for 
the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  Wisconsin  troops 
soon  gained  an  enviable  reputation  at  the  front,  and 
maintained  it  throughout  the  war.  The  population 
of  the  State  was  of  a  mixed  character,  and  the 
regiments  contained  many  Germans,  Scandina\-i- 
ans,  Irish,  Scotch,  Welsh,  Swiss  and  representatives 


284          WJSCONSIN  ON  A    WAR   FOOTING. 

of  other  European  nationalities,  as  well  as  native 
Americans.  Some  of  the  infantry  regiments  were 
almost  wholly  made  up  of  foreigners  —  the  Ninth, 
Twenty-sixth  and  Forty-fifth  were  German,  almost 
to  a  man  ;  the  Fifteenth  was  Scandinavian,  and  the 
Seventeenth  Irish.  There  were  a  good  many  Wis- 
consin Indians  in  the  Third,  Seventh  and  Thirty- 
seventh  ;  and  on  the  Oneida  reservation  at  Keshena 
there  is  an  Indian  Post  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  the  only  one  of  the  sort  in  the  United 
States.  The  French  of  the  State  were  largely 
represented  in  the  Twelfth  regiment. 

The  foreign-born  volunteers  were,  like  the 
natives,  generally  intelligent,  young,  vigorous  and 
of  good  physique.  Wisconsin  soldiers  were  fre- 
quently selected  for  positions  of  great  danger  and 
responsibility,  for  it  was  generally  understood 
that  they  were  apt  to  be  men  of  exceptional 
endurance  and  nerve.  The  government's  policy 
of  making  up  the  several  brigades  and  divisions 
of  men  from  widely-separated  States  was  wise, 
as  it  tended  to  develop  the  national  spirit  and 
eradicate  sectionalism.  It  was  thus  that  Wisconsin's 
91,327  volunteers*  came  to  be  represented  in  every 
one  of  the  great  armies.  They  served  in  brigades 
with  men  from  exx-ry  l())al  State,  and  met  the  enemy 

•  Tlie  avcram'  popiil.iliuii  c,f  tin-  Si. id-  diniiii;  llic  war  was  S22,278,  so  that  she  was  repre- 
sented in  tlie  field  by  one  ninth  of  her  popiilalioti ;  if  tlu-  presidential  vote  of  1H64  is  taken  as 
a  basis,  over  one  half  of  her  voters  were  in  the  war. 


WISCONSIN  ON  A    I  FA  A'   FOOTING.         285 

in  every  one  of  the  seceded  States  save  Florida ; 
some  of  them  were  in  the  Indian  campaigns  in 
Minnesota,  Dakota  and  Indian  Territory,  and  others 
patrolled  the  Rio  Grande  during  the  threatened  in- 
vasion from  Mexico.  There  was  still  another 
reason  why  Wisconsin  regiments  attained  a  special 
reputation  for  efficiency :  not  desirous  like  some 
States  of  multiplying  the  number  of  regiments, 
the  custom  was  adopted  of  mingling  the  recruits 
with  the  veterans,  that  the  former  might  sooner 
learn  the  art  of  war.  Sherman,  in  his  "  Memoirs," 
pays  this  rare  tribute  to  Wisconsin's  method:  "I 
remember  that  Wisconsin  kept  her  regiments  filled 
with  recruits,  whereas  other  States  generally  filled 
up  their  quotas  by  new  regiments  ;  and  the  result 
was  that  we  estimated  a  Wisconsin  regiment  equal 
to  an  ordinary  brigade." 

Governor  Randall,  although  setting  out  with  no 
preliminary  training  in  the  management  of  enter- 
prises of  this  character,  had  made  for  himself 
before  the  close  of  the  opening  year  of  the  war,  a 
most  enviable  record.  Imbued  with  a  spirit  of  in- 
tense patriotism  he  went  into  his  work  with  intelli- 
gent zeal,  and  soon  evolving  some  sort  of  order  out 
of  chaos  had  placed  the  Wisconsin  troops  upon  as 
excellent  a  footing  as  any  of  the  regiments  from 
the  older  and  wealthier  States.  He  had  properly 
organized  the  war  machinery  of  the  commonwealth 


286         WJSCONSIN  ON  A    IVAR   FOOTING. 

and  given  it  sucli  an  impetus,  that  his  successor, 
Governor  Harvey,  who  came  into  office  in  January, 
1862,  had  but  to  continue  the  direction  upon  the 
same  general  lines.  Randall  had  not  been  a  candi- 
date for  reelection,  otherwise  the  people  of  the 
State  would  have  been  glad  to  continue  him  at  the 
head  of  affairs,  despite  the  prevailing  American 
prejudice  against  a  third  term  for  any  chief  execu- 
tive. State  or  national. 

Harvey,  who  was  an  energetic  man  and  capa- 
ble of  grasping  the  situation,  was  not  destined  to 
long  remain  at  the  helm.  Some  of  the  Wisconsin 
regiments  had  been  sadly  thinned  at  the  battle 
of  Pittsburgh  Landing,  the  seventh  of  April,  and 
there  was  much  suffering  among  the  wounded. 
The  o;reat  Sanitarv  Commission  was  not  then  as 
perfectly  organized  as  it  became  some  eight  or  nine 
months  later,  and  it  devolved  upon  Wisconsin  to 
look  after  her  own  suffering  soldiers.  The  gov- 
ernor organized  a  relief  expedition,  which,  heavily 
laden  with  supplies,  set  out  on  the  tenth  for  Mound 
City,  Paducah  and  Savannah,  where  the  wants  of 
the  stricken  were  amply  met.  Upon  the  nineteenth, 
Harvey,  who  was  just  setting  out  for  home,  lost  his 
life  by  drowning,  being  aboard  the  steamer  "  Dun- 
leith,"  which  collided  at  Savannah  with  the  "  Minne- 
haha." Soon  after  his  death  his  widow  entered  the 
ranks  of  the   Sanitarv    Commission,  and   hundreds 


WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR   1 00 TING.         287 

of  Wisconsin  soldiers  have  orood  reason  to  reeard 
her  as  one  of  the  noblest  women  whom  the  war 
brought  to  hospital  service  at  the  front. 

Harvey  was  succeeded  by  his  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, Salomon,  who  soon  developed  great  capac- 
ity in  the  management  of  war  matters.  Regi- 
ments were  quickly  raised  and  equipped  under  his 
supervision,  and  several  relief  expeditions  sent  to 
succor  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  field.  There 
was  sore  need  just  then  for  men  like  Salomon, 
imbued  with  patriotism  and  energy.  The  Union 
army  had  suffered  seriously,  the  Confederacy  was 
now  seen  to  be  a  power  that  would  require  long 
and  hard  fighting  to  subdue,  the  people  of  the 
North  were  appreciating  for  the  first  time  what 
a  terrible  struggle  was  on  hand,  national  cur- 
rency was  fast  depreciating  in  value,  dark  days 
were  upon  the  land,  and  at  home  the  "  peace-at- 
any-price"  people  were  making  the  path  of  the 
government  as  difficult  as  possible.  Wisconsin 
had  already  lost  several  thousand  of  her  bravest 
and  most  vigorous  citizens,  every  community  had 
its  great  sorrow,  the  cost  of  the  war  was  begin- 
ning to  bear  heavily  upon  the  purses  of  the  poor  in 
the  shape  of  low^  wages  and  high  prices,  and  anx- 
iety was  deeply  graven  on  every  face.  But  the 
great  bulk  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin,  demo- 
crats and  republicans  alike,  never  wavered.    There 


288  WISCONSIN  ON  A    WAR   FOOTING. 

were  no  party  lines  drawn,  with  regard  to  the 
common  cause.  The  words  of  Douglas  expressed 
the  sentiment  of  the  time :  "  There  can  be  but 
two  parties  in  this  war  —  loyal  men  and  traitors." 
There  were,  however,  a  few  scattered  groups  of 
foreign-born,  who  had  not  yet  sufificiently  ab- 
sorbed the  spirit  which  actuated  those  who  had 
been  longer  upon  our  soil  and  nourished  upon 
our  institutions.  When,  in  August,  1862,  the 
o-overnment  demanded  three  hundred  thousand 
men,  to  be  obtained  by  conscription,  of  which 
number  Wisconsin  was  called  on  for  twelve 
thousand,  there  were  murmurs  of  dissatisfaction 
among  the  malcontents,  who  were  chiefly  Belgians. 
The  draft  began  in  November.  At  Port  Wash- 
ington, in  Ozaukee  county,  the  militia  rolls  were 
seized  and  destroyed  by  a  mob,  which  was  led 
by  a  saloon-keeper ;  the  draft  commissioner  fled 
for  his  life,  his  house  and  the  dwellings  of  other 
prominent  citizens  being  ruthlessly  sacked.  At 
West  Bend,  in  Washington  county,  similar  scenes 
were  enacted.  By  this  time  the  governor  was 
awake  to  the  situation ;  and  when,  a  few  days 
later,  the  draft  opened  in  Milwaukee,  the  streets 
of  that  city  were  patrolled  by  troops  selected 
from  Wisconsin  regiments  then  in  camp,  and 
the  riotous  element,  which  had  been  loud  in  its 
threats,    subsided     before    this    show    of    superior 


WJSCONSJJV    ON  A    WAR   JOOTING.         2S9 

force.  The  rioters  at  Port  Washington  and  West 
Bend  were  promptly  arrested  and  thrust  into  guard- 
houses at  the  central  rendezvous  camps,  but  after 
a  few  months'  imprisonment  were  released.  There 
were  no  further  demonstrations  in  opposition  to 
conscription,  in  Wisconsin. 

In  August  and  September,  1862,  a  new  and  un- 
expected danger  arose.  In  Minnesota,  the  Sioux 
under  Little  Crow  were  carrying  death  and  destruc- 
tion .through  many  a  fertile  valley,  and  endeavor- 
ing to  organize  a  general  Indian  uprising  in  the 
Northwest.  The  Wisconsin  Indians  were  restive 
under  the  persuasions  of  their  friends  across  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  white  borderers  in  the  north- 
western counties  of  the  State  were  fearful  that 
the  scenes  of  blood  in  Minnesota  mio^ht  be  re- 
enacted  at  their  own  homes.  Governor  Salomon 
promptly  dispatched  arms  and  ammunition  to  the 
seat  of  the  disturbance,  thus  convincing  the  Indians 
that  they  were  being  watched,  and  would  receive 
punishment  if  they  deserved  it.  All  grounds  for 
apprehension  were  soon  removed. 

Salomon  was  succeeded  as  governor,  in  Jan- 
uary, 1864,  by  James  T.  Lewis,  who  did  good 
service  in  carrying  out  and  completing  the  plans 
so  successfully  inaugurated  by  his  predecessors. 
To  him  fell  the  pleasure,  the  tenth  of  April, 
1865,    of   formally   announcing    to    the    legislature 


290  WISCONSIN   ON  A     WAR    J^  00  TING. 

"the  surrender  of  General  Lee  and  his  army — 
the  last  prop  of  the  Rebellion."  This  was  virt- 
ually the  close  of  the  war.  The  few  scattered 
remnants  of  the  Confederate  forces  soon  surren- 
dered one  by  one,  the  last  being  the  command  of 
E.  Kirby  Smith,  in  Louisiana,  the  twenty-sixth 
of  May.  On  the  thirteenth  of  April,  recruiting 
was  discontinued  in  Wisconsin.  Two  weeks 
later,  all  ors^anizations  whose  terms  of  service  ex- 
pired  by  the  following  first  of  October,  were  ordered 
mustered  out.  The  provost  marshal's  offices  were 
closed  throughout  the  State,  regiments  were  dis- 
banded at  intervals  during  the  summer,  fall  and 
succeeding  winter  —  for  several  of  them  had 
been  sent  to  the  Rio  Grande  to  keep  the  Mex- 
icans in  check,  and  to  the  far  Northwest  to 
protect  the  Indian  frontier  —  by  the  close  of 
the  year  the  absorbing  business  of  war  had  for 
the  most  part  ceased,  and  all  haste  was  now  made 
to  again  place  Wisconsin  on  a  peace  footing. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


DEEDS     OF     VALOR, 


HE  part  which  Wis- 
consin troops  took 
in  the  various  armies 
of  the  Union  was 
continual  and  effec- 
tive. We  have  space 
for  allusion  to  a  few 
only  of  the  striking 
features  of  their  ser- 
vice. 

On  the  second  of  July,  1861,  the  First  Wiscon- 
sin, then  of  Abercrombie's  brigade  —  employed  in 
a  futile  attempt  to  prevent  Johnston  from  reinforc- 
ing Beauregard  at  Bull  Run  —  met  the  enemy  in 
a  skirmish  at  Falling  Waters.  George  Drake,  a 
private  from  Milwaukee,  was  killed  in  the  brush, 
thus  being  not  only  the  first  Wisconsin  man  to 
give  up  his  life  in  the  cause  of  the  Union,  but  the 
first  soldier  to  fall  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah, soon  to  become  one  of  the  bloodiest  scenes 
in  the  oreat  theater  of  war. 


291 


292  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

At  the  first  Bull  Run,  the  Second  Wisconsin, 
which  was  prominent  in  the  contest  for  Henry  Hill, 
won  high  praise  from  Sherman  for  steadiness  and 
nerve,  qualities  which  afterwards  made  for  the  regi- 
ment an  international  reputation.  It  lost  over  one 
seventh  of  the  command  in  killed  and  wounded,  in 
that  action,  and  was  among  the  last  to  leave  the 
luckless  field.  The  total  loss  sustained  by  this 
regiment  throughout  the  war,  represented  the 
extreme  limit  of  danger  to  which  human  life  was 
exposed  during  the  protracted  struggle ;  for  out  of 
an  enrollment  of  1203,  there  were  238  killed  or 
mortally  wounded,  being  19.7  per  cent,  of  the 
whole.  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  enroll- 
ment includes  non-combatants  —  musicians,  team- 
sters, cooks,  servants,  hospital  assistants  and  quar- 
termaster's men — also  the  sick,  detailed  men  and 
all  manner  of  absentees ;  while  those  of  the 
wounded  who  lived,  however  miserable  their  condi- 
tion, are  not  included  in  the  loss  above  enumerated. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  records  show  that  nearly 
nine  hundred  men  in  the  Second  Wisconsin  were 
killed  or  wounded,  leaving  but  few  unharmed  of 
those  who  carried  arms.  Thus  this  gallant  com- 
mand stands  at  the  head  of  the  percentage  list  of 
regimental  losses  in  killed  and  died  of  wounds,  dur- 
ing the  war.  The  Seventh  and  Twenty-sixth  Wis- 
consin are  fifth  in  that  fatal  column,  their  losses  in 


DEEDS    OF    VALOA'.  293 

killed  or  mortally  wounded  being  equally  17,2  per 
cent,  of  their  total  enrollment.  The  Thirty-sixth, 
with  a  loss  of  15.4  per  cent.,  has  the  sixteenth  place 
upon  this  national  roll  of  honor.* 

The  Third  was  at  Frederick,  Maryland,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1861,  having  been  sent  to  capture  the 
"  bogus  "  legislature  assembled  there  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  passing  an  ordinance  of  secession. 
The  Wisconsin  men  accomplished  the  purpose  for 
which  they  had  been  detailed,  and  kept  the  Mary- 
land legislators  in  the  2:uard-house  until  the  latter 
acknowledged  a  change  of    heart. 

On  the  bloody  field  of  Shiloh,  in  April,  1862, 
the  Fourteenth,  Sixteenth  and  Eighteenth  Wiscon- 
sin infantry  won  renown.  The  Sixteenth  and 
Eighteenth  were  entirely  raw,  this  being  their 
first  engagement ;  yet  they  stood  to  the  rack  with 
admirable  nerve,  steadily  held  their  ground  and 
elicited  the  warmest  praise  from  the  newspaper 
correspondents  on  the  field.  The  Fourteenth  was 
not  engaged  in  the  first  day's  fight,  not  arriving  on 
the  ground  until  midnight.  It  was  an  ugly  night 
and  the  troops  stood  in  pelting  rain  and  mud,  ankle- 
deep,  waiting  for  the  morning  which  was  ushered 
in  with  a  desperate  struggle.  All  of  the  second 
day,  the  Fourteenth  stood  up  like  veterans,  winning 

*  Fox's  "  Regimental  Losses  in  the  American  Civil  War,"  from  which  the  above  percent- 
age figures  are  taken,  places  the  Seventh  Wisconsin  as  third  in  the  maximum  table  of  losses 
in  killed  or  died  of  wounds,  the  Sixth  as  tenth,  and  tlie  Second  as  thirteentli. 


2  94  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

Grant's  especial  admiration.  The  battle  had  not 
been  long  in  progress  when  a  Kentucky  regiment, 
brigaded  with  the  Fourteenth  Wisconsin,  was 
ordered  to  charge  a  Confederate  battery,  but  fell 
back  in  confusion,  having  been  repulsed  with  great 
loss.  "  It  was  then,"  writes  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Messmore  of  the  Fourteenth,  "  that  General  Grant 
rode  up  to  where  I  was  standing,  immediately  in 
the  rear  of  our  regiment,  and  said  to  me,  '  Can't 
your  regiment  take  that  battery  } '  My  reply  was, 
'  We  will  try  ! '  and  I  immediately  passed  through 
the  center  of  the  regiment  to  the  front,  and  gave 
the  order  to  charge."  The  two  leading  field  ofificers 
of  the  regiment  being  disabled  in  the  outset,  this 
notable  charge  was  led  by  Major  John  Hancock, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  in  the  war. 
Althouo-h  thrice  driven  back,  the  Wisconsin  men 
finally  broke  the  Confederate  line,  the  coveted  bat- 
tery was  cai)tured,  and  the  rout  began  which  soon 
resulted  in  complete  victory  for  the  Union  cause. 

In  the  Peninsular  campaign  of  1862,  Wisconsin 
was  represented  by  the  Mfth  and  by  Company  G, 
of  Berdan's  sharpshooters  —  the  latter,  a  notable 
command  which  w\as  continually  winning  laurels 
throughout  the  war.  The  I'ifth  was  in  Hancock's 
brigade  at  Williamsljurg,  which  made  a  famous 
Imyonet  charge  on  the  enemy,  routing  and  scatter- 
in.,    tlwin,    tluis    tni-ning    the    wavering  fortunes   of 


DEEDS    OE    VALOR. 


^95 


the  day  in  favor  of  the  Union.  In  this  daring 
onslaught,  the  Fifth  won  high  honors,  and  on 
dress  parade  two  days  later,  General  McClellan 
addressed  the  regiment  in  words  of  glowing  praise, 
saying,  "  Through  you  we  won  the  day,  and  Wil- 
liamsburg   shall     be    inscribed     on     your    banner. 


THE   WISCONSIN    FOURTEENTH    CHARGING   THE    BATTERY, 

Your  country  owes  you  its  grateful  thanks." 
In  telegraphing  to  the  War  Department,  he  said 
that  the  charge  was  "  brilliant  in  the  extreme." 

In  the  Shenandoah  valley  campaign,  in  1862,  the 
Third  bore  a  prominent  part.  At  Gainesville,  the 
Second,  Sixth  and  Seventh  —  which  now  formed 
the   greater  part  of  the    Iron    Brigade  of  the   First 


296  DEEDS    OE    VALOR. 

corps*  —  fought  so  well  that  Pope  declared  they 
were  "  among  the  best  troops  in  the  service."     The 
Second,    while    leading    the    brigade,    which    was 
marching  in  column,  was  attacked  by  a  Confederate 
battery  posted  on  a  wooded  eminence  to  the  left. 
The  regiment  promptly  advanced  upon  the  battery 
and  soon  encountered  the  enemy's  infantry.     While 
awaiting  the   arrival   of    the   rest   of    the   brigade, 
these    brave    sons    of    Wisconsin    sustained    and 
checked,  with  remarkable  courage,  for  nearly  twenty 
lono-  minutes,  the  terrific  onset  of  the  divisions  of 
Taliaferro  and    Ewell,  aided  by   four  Confederate 
batteries.     The  battle  was  continued  by  the  brigade 
for  some  hours,  until    nine   o'clock  in  the  evening, 
when  the  attack  was     repulsed    and    the   National 
flag  floated  triumphantly  over  the  field.     The  New 
York    Seventy-sixth  and     the   Pennsylvania    Fifty- 
sixth,  of    Doubleday's    brigade,  were    sent    to  the 
assistance  of  the  gallant   Iron    Brigade,  shortly  be- 
fore the  firing  ceased;  but  as  they  did   not  materi- 
ally aid  in  the  result,  the  honors  of  the  fight  belong 
to  the  latter.      In  this  brief  but  bloody  engagement, 
(jne  of  the  sharpest    of    the  minor    battles  of    the 
war,  the  Second   Wisconsin's    casualties  amounted 
to  sixty  per  cent,  of  its  rank  and  file,  and  the  entire 
Iron  Brigade  lost  nine  hundred  men. 

•  The  Iron  UriRatlc  was  lluii  comiKwd  of  tlic  Soiniul,  Sixtli  niid  ScvL-iith  Wisonnsin,  and 
NiiiotcenUi  Indiana;  in  October,  1862,  tlie  Twenty-fourth  Michigan  was  added,  Tlio 
hcavicut  aKKrcKate  lose  by  brigades,  in  the  entire  war,  fell  to  this  gallant  command. 


DEEDS    OF   VALOR.  297 

The  Iron  Brigade  also  participated  in  the  second 
battle  of  Bull  Run.  It  covered  the  retreat  of 
Pope's  army  from  that  battle-field,  being  selected 
for  the  arduous  task  by  McDowell.  Two  weeks 
later,  the  war-worn  veterans  were  heard  from  at 
South  Mountain,  where  they  took  a  prominent 
part  in  the  engagement  of  September  fourteenth. 
To  them  was  assigned  the  storming  of  the 
enemy,  which  was  posted  in  Turner's  Gap  and 
across  the  National  road  at  that  point.  The 
assault  began  at  half-past  five  in  the  evening, 
the  Second  Wisconsin  again  leading  on  the 
left  of  the  road  and  the  Sixth  and  Seventh  on 
the  right.  By  nine  o'clock  the  enemy  had  been 
routed  and  driven  from  the  pass,  but  the  gallant 
victory  was  a  bloody  one.  The  flying  foe  was 
chased  through  Boonesboro,  the  Iron  Brigade  being 
in  advance  of  the  entire  Army  of  the  Potomac  and 
receiving  the  enemy's  retreating  fire. 

At  Antietam,  which  Greeley  said  was  "the 
bloodiest  day  America  ever  knew,"  the  Third 
Wisconsin  —  hardly  recovered  from  the  shock  re- 
ceived at  Cedar  Mountain,  where  it  opened  the 
battle — won  enviable  renown,  standing  in  an  ex- 
posed position  and  firing  steadily,  "  until  the  fallen 
cartridge  papers,  for  months  afterwards,  showed  by 
a  strange  windrow  its  perfect  line  of  battle."  The 
Third    lost  nearly  two  thirds   of    the    men    it   took 


298  DEEDS    OF    VALOIi. 

into  the  fight.  The  Fifth,  too,  was  prominent  upon 
that  sanguinary  field,  stubbornly  supporting  a  bat- 
tery during  the  fiercest  of  the  fray.  The  Iron 
Brigade  did  valiant  service,  the  galling  fire  of  the 
Sixth  Wisconsin  from  behind  a  stout  rail-fence 
being  one  of  the  features  of  the  day.  Battery  B, 
of  the  Fourth  United  States  artillery,  was  largely 
composed  of  men  from  the  Wisconsin  regiments  of 
the  Iron  Brigade,  and  at  Antietam  sustained  the 
heaviest  loss  met  by  any  battery  on  either  side  in 
any  one  battle  of  the  war. 

In  the  battle  of  Corinth,  several  Wisconsin  in- 
fantry regiments  and  four  of  its  batteries  were 
accorded  exceptional  praise.  On  the  occasion  of 
the  second  battle,  the  brigade  commander  reported 
of  the  Fourteenth,  which  had  won  such  glory  at 
Shiloh  :  "  This  regiment  was  the  one  to  rely  upon 
in  every  emergency  ;  always  cool,  steady  and  vigor- 
ous." The  Seventeenth  made  a  wild,  tearing 
charge,  causing  the  l^rigadier  to  cry,  "  Boys  of  the 
Seventeenth,  you  have  made  the  most  glorious 
charge  of  the  campaign  !  "  The  Eighteenth,  too, 
was  praised  for  "  most  effectual  service,"  while  the 
I'jgluh  and  SixLcentli  came  in  for  their  share  of 
honorable  mention.  The  Sixth  battery  "  did  noble 
work,"  said  (ieiu'ial  Hamilton.  'I'o  the  Twelfth 
battery,  (ienci-.il  Siilli\aii  said,  "  i)()ys,  I  am  jDroud 
of  yf)U.      You  have  done  nobly.      The  dead  in  front 


DEEDS   OF   VALOR.  299 

of  your  battery  show  the  work  you  have  done." 
The  Fifth  and  the  Eighth  batteries  also  won  honor 
for  Wisconsin  upon  this  field. 

At  Chaplin  Hills,  near  Perryville,  Ky.,  five  days 
later,  the  First  Wisconsin  quickly  rallied  from  the 
disorder  which  threatened  to  involve   Buell's  army 
in   disaster,   and  cried   out   to   General    Rousseau, 
"  Lead  us  to  the  front !  "     The  result  is  told  in  that 
general's    report :  "  They    drove    back    the    enemy 
several  times  with  great  loss,  and  until  their  ammu- 
nition gave  out  bravely  maintained  their  position." 
They  captured  a  stand  of  Confederate  colors  and 
were  the  heroes  of  the  hour.     The  Tenth  Wiscon- 
sin was  seven  hours  under  fire,  and   lost  fifty-four 
per  cent,  of    the   men   it   took   into   action.      Said 
Rousseau  of  this  command,  "  Repeatedly  assailed 
by  overwhelming  numbers,  after  exhausting  its  am- 
munition   it   still   held    its   position.     These   brave 
men  are  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of    the  country." 
Buell's   report  makes  honorable    mention    of    Ser- 
geant William  Nelson,  of  Company  I  of  the  Tenth, 
who,  with  a  detail  of  twenty-two  men,  for  two  hours 
held   Paint   Rock  railroad  bridge,  near   Huntsville, 
against  a  force  of  nearly  three  hundred  Confederate 
cavalry,    "repulsing  them   in  the  most  signal  man- 
ner.    This  example,"   Buell  continues,  "  is  worthy 
of    imitation  by   higher    oiificers    and    larger    com- 
mands."    The   Fifteenth  captured   heavy   stores  of 


300  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

ammunition  and  many  prisoners.  The  Twenty- 
first  won  the  praise  of  McCook  for  a  withering  fire 
poured  into  an  overwhehiiing  force  of  the  enemy, 
which  had  swooped  down  upon  the  Wisconsin  men 
while  lying  in  a  corn-field.  Here  again  the  Fifth 
battery  figured  prominently  by  three  times  turning 
back  a  Confederate  charge.  McCook  thanked  the 
brave  artillerymen  on  the  field,  saying,  "  They 
saved  the  division  from  a  disgraceful  defeat." 

At  Prairie  Grove,  Ark.,  the  first  week  in  Decem- 
ber, the  Union  forces  were  composed  of  Western 
men,  among  whom  Wisconsin  troops  were  conspicu- 
ous. The  Twentieth  Wisconsin,  in  company  with 
the  Nineteenth  Iowa,  made  a  most  desperate  charge 
on  a  rebel  battery.  They  were  repulsed,  but  Gen- 
eral Herron  says,  "  Their  charge  was  a  glorious 
sight.  Better  men  never  went  upon  the  field."  In 
this  action,  the  loss  sustained  by  the  Twentieth  in 
killed  or  mortally  wounded,  was  eighty-six,  the 
larofest  death  loss  that  ever  fell  to  anv  Union  resfi- 
ment  in  any  one  battle  during  the  war.  Of  the 
Second  and  Third  Wisconsin  cavalry,  also  present, 
Herron  declared  that  they  had  proved  themselves 
"  worth}'  of  the  name  of  American  soldiers."  The 
'ihiid  cavalry  executed  some  particularly  skillful 
ni.'uio'uvers  and  sharply  attacked  tlu:  Confederate 
left  wing. 

A  week  later,  ocnirrcd  the '>reat  battle  of  Freder- 


DEEDS    OF    VALOR.  301 

icksburg,  where  the  Iron  Brigade  held  an  exposed 
and  dangerous  position  on  the  extreme  left  of  the 
Union  army,  being  constantly  under  severe  artil- 
lery fire. 

The  terrible  struggle  at  Stone  River  closed  the 
year's  campaign.  Here,  Wisconsin  was  represented 
by  the  First,  Tenth,  Fifteenth,  Twenty-first  and 
Twenty-fourth  infantry,*  besides  the  Third,  Fifth 
and  Eighth  batteries.  In  the  contest  of  the  thir- 
tieth of  December,  the  Fifteenth  infantry  captured 
a  gun  ;  while  Sheridan  spoke  of  the  "  splendid  con- 
duct, bravery  and  efBciency  of  the  Twenty-fourth 
Wisconsin."  Brigade  commander  Scribner  said, 
"  The  Tenth  Wisconsin  would  have  suffered  exter- 
mination rather  than  yield  its  ground  without 
orders."  Rousseau  reported  that  when  his  supply 
trains  were  attacked  by  the  enemy's  cavalry,  "  The 
burden  of  the  fight  fell  on  the  Twenty-first  Wis- 
consin, who  behaved  like  veterans."  General  Davis 
said  that  the  conduct  of  the  Fifth  battery  was  "gal- 
lant and  distinguished;  "and  the  commander  of  the 
brigade  to  which  the  Eighth  battery  was  attached, 
alluded  to  the  "  determined  braver)^  and  chivalrous 
heroism  of  officers  and  men." 

Wisconsin  troops  were  prominent  throughout 
the  "mud  campaign,"  during  the  early  months  of 
1863,    wherein    the    Army   of    the    Potomac,   sadly 

*  The  Twenty-fourth  was  popularly  known  as  the  "  Milwaukee  Regiment." 


302  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

harassed,  wallowed  about  in  the  floating  soil  of 
Virginia.  The  battle  of  Fitz  Hugh's  Crossing,  the 
twenty-ninth  of  April,  was  a  lively  affair  for  the 
old  Iron  Brigade.  To  it  was  assigned  the  danger- 
ous duty  of  crossing  the  Rappahannock  in  boats 
and  carrying  the  enemy's  first  line,  for  the  purpose 
of  covering  the  pontoon-layers.  The  brigade  made 
a  brilliant  dash  across  the  river,  charged  up  the  op- 
posite heights,  carried  the  Confederate  riflepits  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  captured  several  hun- 
dred prisoners. 

At  Chancellorsville,  a  few  days  later,  the  Third 
Wisconsin  was  in  the  division  which  was  thrown 
forward  as  a  barrier  to  the  advance  of  Stonewall 
Jackson,  after  the  latter  had  crushed  the  Eleventh 
corps.  Jackson  was  held  back  for  the  time,  and 
the  next  day  when  all  was  lost,  the  stubborn  Third 
was  the  last  regiment  to  withdraw  from  the  pres- 
ence of  the  foe. 

Wliile  this  contest  was  being  waged,  the  Fifth 
Wisconsin  was  winning  undying  laurels  near  by,  on 
Marye's  Hill,  at  Fredericksburg.  In  the  preceding 
December,  over  six  thousand  Union  soldiers  under 
Hurnside  had  been  slaughtered,  while  charging  the 
Confederates  lying  in  the  sunken  roadway  winding 
about  the  base  of  this  famous  Iicight.  lUit  it  was 
\-\i)\\  necessary  (hat  the  attemjit  should  again  be 
made,  and  Col.  Tliomas  S.  Allen,  of  the  Fifth  Wis- 


DEEDS    OF    VALOR.  303 

consin,  was  ordered  to  lead  the  forlorn  hope  and 
arrange  all  details.  The  Fifth  Wisconsin  and  the 
Sixth  Maine  volunteered  to  lead  the  column.  The 
brave  commander  walked  among  his  men,  inspiring 
them  to  the  hazardous  deed.  "  My  boys,"  he  said, 
"do  you  see  those  works  in  front?  We  have  got  to 
take  them!  Perhaps  you  think  you  cannot  do  it, 
but  I  know  you  can.  I  am  confident  of  it.  When 
the  order  to  advance  comes,  you  will  trail  arms 
and  move  forward  on  the  double-quick.  Do  not 
fire  a  gun  and  do  not  stop  until  you  get  the  order 
to  halt.     You  will  never  get  that  order!  " 

The  order  to  forward  came.  From  the  riflemen 
behind  the  stone-wall  flanking  the  roadway,  from 
the  houses  along  the  base,  from  the  batteries  on 
the  heights  above,  was  poured  upon  these  devoted 
men  from  Wisconsin  and  Maine  a  terrible  storm  of 
iron  and  lead.  Grape  and  canister  mowed  their 
ranks.  They  were  in  the  grand  highway  to  death  ; 
still  they  pushed  on  and  on,  supported  from  be- 
hind by  regiments  from  New  York  and  other 
States,  but  themselves  alone  in  the  vortex  of  de- 
struction. Over  stone  wall,  through  brier  and 
bramble,  over  the  slippery  places,  up  among  the 
rolling  bowlders,  clutching  to  bushes,  scrambling 
on  all-fours,  digging,  pitching,  climbing  over  heaps 
of  dead  and  wounded,  overcoming  line  after  line  of 
redoubts,   the   men    who    were    not   to    halt    finali\' 


304  DEEDS   OF    VALOR. 

reached  the  summit.  There  were  wild  hurrahs, 
the  gleam  of  bayonets,  the  roar  and  smoke  of 
cannon,  the  shrieks  of  the  dying;  and  then  the 
enemy  turned  and  ran,  and  Colonel  Allen's  men  — 
such  of  them  as  were  left  —  were  the  victors  of 
Marye's  Heights.  The  Southern -sympathizing- 
correspondent  of  The  London  Times,  writing  from 
Lee's  headquarters  about  this  terrible  assault,  de- 
clared :  "  Never  at  Fontenoy,  Albuera,  nor  at 
Waterloo  was  more  undaunted  courage  displayed." 
And  Greeley  wrote  :  "  Braver  men  never  smiled  on 
death,  than  those  v/ho  climbed  Marye's  Hill  on 
that  fatal  day."  The  Confederate  commander  told 
the  Wisconsin  colonel,  as  he  handed  him  his  sword 
and  his  silver  spurs,  that  he  had  supposed  there 
were  not  troops  enough  in  the  entire  army  of  the 
Potomac  to  carry  the  works,  and  declared  that  it 
was  the  most  daring  assault  he  had  ever  seen. 

Twelve  of  Wisconsin's  infantry  regiments  and 
one  of  her  cavalry,  besides  three  of  her  batteries, 
took  part  in  the  campaign  which  led  to  the  fall  of 
Vicksburg,  in  1S63  —  the  Second  cavalry,  the 
First,  Sixth,  and  Twelfth  batteries,  and  the  Eighth, 
Eleventh,  Twelfth,  Fourteenth,  Seventeenth,  Eight- 
eenth, Twentieth,  Twenty  -  third.  Twenty  -  fifth. 
Twenty-seventh,  Twenty-ninth  and  Thirty-third 
infantry.  In  the  preliminary  engagements,  the 
'I'wcntv-third  icreived  lii-h  en(-()minms  for  the  part 


DEEDS    OF    I  A  J.  OR. 


0^0 


it  played  in  the  capture  of  Arkansas  Post  and  in 
the  battle  of  Port  Gibson ;  in  reports  of  the  latter 
engagement,  the  Eleventh  and  Twenty-ninth  were 
also  honorably  mentioned.  The  Eighth  and  Eight- 
eenth helped  to  carry  the  town  of  Jackson.  At 
Champion  Hills,  the  Sixth  Battery  and  Twenty- 
third  Infantry  rendered  consj^icuous  service  ;  but 
the  Twenty-ninth  infantry,  which  assisted  the 
Eleventh  Indiana  in  a  singularly-daring  capture  of 
a  battery  and  a  stand  of  colors,  won  exceptional 
honors.  The  Eleventh  Wisconsin  distinguished 
itself  the  following  day  by  a  brilliant  charge 
against  the  enemy,  on  the  Big  Black.  All  of 
the  Wisconsin  troops  were  hotly  engaged  during 
the  investment  of  Vicksburg.  The  assault  of 
May  twenty-second  was  participated  in  by  the 
Fourteenth,  Eleventh  and  Eighth.  The  Four- 
teenth lost  nearly  half  of  its  men,  and  was  given 
the  post  of  honor  when  Rousseau's  division  entered 
the  city  after  the  surrender.  "  Every  man  in  the 
Fourteenth,"  said  that  general  in  his  order,  "  is  a 
hero."  The  Twelfth,  Eighteenth,  Twenty-third 
and  Twenty-seventh  did  remarkably  good  service 
throughout  the  siege  ;  and  it  was  an  officer  of  the 
Twenty-third  who  received  Pemberton's  offer  to 
surrender,  at  the  base  of  the  works. 

Upon   the   day   of  the  surrender   of    Vicksburg, 
occurred   the    battle    of    Helena,   Ark.       Here  the 


3o6  DEEDS    OF    VALOK. 


Twenty- eighth  Wisconsin  had  done  most  valiant 
deeds,  and  a  Wisconsin  man,  General  Salomon, 
had  planned  the  admirable  defenses  by  which 
victory  was  attained.  Five  days  later,  Port  Hudson 
yielded  up  to  Banks  and  Farragut  its  garrison  of 
six  thousand  men.  One  of  the  memorable  events 
of  the  siege  was  the  charge  into  the  ditch,  made  by 
the  Fourth  Wisconsin,  of  which  Greeley  wrote, 
"  Never  was  fiQ-htino-  more  heroic." 

But  in  the  East,  even  greater  events  had  hap- 
pened. On  the  field  of  Gettysburg,  the  first  three 
days  of  July,  1863,  was  fought  the  most  moment- 
ous battle  of  the  Rebellion.  And  here  again  Wis- 
consin soldiers  were  destined  to  be  prominent 
factors  in  the  fight.  The  Iron  Brigade  had  en- 
dured a  tedious  march  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
miles  during  the  last  two  weeks  of  June,  and  did 
not  reach  the  field  of  action  in  prime  condition. 
But  there  was  no  time  then  for  recuperation.  Lee 
had  invaded  Pennsylvania,  and  unless  promptly 
checked  might  turn  the  tide  of  events  in  favor  of 
the  Confederacy.  It  was  the  supreme  crisis  of  the 
war. 

I'^arly  in  the  morning  of  the  first  of  July,  the 
I^rst  corps — to  which  the  Iron  Brigade  was  at- 
tached—  advanced  cautiously  in  the  direction  of 
(iettysburg,  being  assigned  to  the  sui)port  of  Bu- 
ford's    cavalrv.      Tin-    favorite    Second    Wisconsin 


DEEDS    OE    VALOR.  307 

had  that  day  the  lead  of  the  corps,  and,  first  to 
meet  the  enemy — Heth's  division  of  A.  P.  Hill's 
corps  —  began  the  infantry  part  of  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg.  The  regiment  came  into  line  on  the 
double-quick,  behind  a  slight  elevation,  and  without 
waiting  for  the  rest  of  the  brigade  to  form,  ad- 
vanced with  steadiness  over  the  crest,  receiving  a 
volley  which  mowed  down  over  thirty  per  cent,  of 
its  rank  and  file.  *  A  few  minutes  after,  its  gal- 
lant colonel,  Lucius  Fairchild,  lost  an  arm  ;  and  it 
was  while  in  the  rear  of  this  reoiment  that  General 
Reynolds,  commanding  the  left  grand  division,  was 
killed.  The  other  regiments  of  the  brigade  —  ex- 
cept the  Sixth  Wisconsin,  which  had  been  halted 
by  General  Doubleday  to  serve  as  a  reserve  — 
soon  came  up,  and  after  a  wild  conflict  of  less  than 
thirty  minutes'  duration  the  Confederates  entirely 
abandoned  the  field,  leaving  eight  hundred  prison- 
ers, including  General  Archer,  in  the  hands  of  the 
brigade.  Meanwhile  the  Sixth  had  been  ordered 
to  the  assistance  of  Cutler's  brigade,  now  being 
driven  back  into  the  village,  and  made  a  brilliant 
charge  on  the  railway  cut,  capturing  the  Second 
Mississippi  with  its  colors.  The  Iron  Brigade, 
soon  after  it  captured  Archer,  was  forced  by  over- 
powering numbers  to  fall  back  on  Cemetery  Hill, 


♦  The  Second  Wisconsin  lost  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  In  killed  and  wounded,  not  in- 
cluding missing,  at  Gettysburg,  which  was  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  men  It  had  in  the  fight. 


3o8  DEEDS   OF   VALOR. 

where  it  intrenched  itself  and  remained  exposed 
to  the  enemy's  artillery  throughout  the  remainder  of 
the  battle.  The  brigade  took  1883  men  into  action, 
rank  and  file,  and  lost  12 12  in  killed,  wounded  and 
missing  —  64.3  per  cent.  The  Third  Wisconsin 
drove  Ewell  from  Gulp's  Hill  and  clung  to  its  posi- 
tion despite  a  terrible  cross-fire,  in  which  its  ranks 
melted  away  like  ice  before  a  furnace.  Of  the 
officers  of  the  Twenty-sixth,  only  four  remained 
unhurt.  The  Wisconsin  company  of  Berdan's  sharp- 
shooters w'as  in  the  key  of  battle  when  the  enemy 
attempted,  on  their  final  charge,  to  break  the  Union 
center.  The  Fifth  Wisconsin  infantry  was  on  the 
extreme  left  of  the  Union  army,  and  was  thus  not 
given  an  opportunity  to  show  its  mettle. 

During:  the  retreat  of  the  Iron  Brioade  to  Ceme- 
tery  Hill,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  first  day,  Daniel 
McDcrmott,  color  sergeant  of  the  Seventh  Wis- 
consin, fell  severely  wounded.  Fearing  that  if  he 
died  on  the  contested  field  or  was  captured,  his 
flag  would  be  seized  as  a  prize  by  the  enemy,  he 
tore  the  stars  and  stripes  from  the  staff  and  stuffed 
the  precious  em])lc'm  in  his  bosom.  Later,  his 
comrades  ])ick('d  him  up  and  carried  liim  back  with 
them  on  a  caisson.  It  was  thought  for  a  time  that 
the  colors  of  the  Seventh  had  been  captured,  but 
when  the  unconscious  hero  was  being  treated  at 
the     hospital,    they    were     found     safe    within    liis 


\\ 


DEEDS    OE   VALOR.  311 

jacket.  The  brave  McDermott  lived,  and  the  ban- 
ner he  saved  can  still  be  seen  in  the  Wisconsin 
State  House. 

Another  dramatic  occurrence  at  Gettysburg  is 
thus  related  by  General  Doubleday :  "  An  officer 
of  the  Sixth  Wisconsin  approached  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Dawes,  the  commander  of  the  regiment, 
after  the  sharp  fight  in  the  railway  cut.  The  Col- 
onel supposed  from  the  firm  and  erect  attitude  of 
the  man,  that  he  came  to  report  for  orders  of  some 
kind ;  but  the  compressed  lips  told  a  different 
story.  With  a  great  effort  the  officer  said  :  '  Tell 
them  at  home  I  died  like  a  man  and  a  soldier!' 
He  threw  open  his  breast,  displayed  a  ghastly 
wound,  and  dropped  dead  at  the  colonel's  feet." 

The  incident  of  "  John  Burns  of  Gettysburg " 
was  one  of  the  most  romantic  connected  with  the 
great  struggle.  Burns  was  a  resident  of  the  fated 
village,  some  seventy  years  of  age;  he  had  served 
in  the  War  of  18 12-15,  the  Seminole  War  in  1835 
and  the  Mexican  War,  and,  endeavoring  to  enlist  in 
the  Union  army  in  1861,  had  been  rejected  as  too 
old.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  Union  forces  at 
Gettysburg,  he  attached  himself  to  Company  F  of 
the  Seventh  Wisconsin,  and  fought  with  them  on 
the  skirmish  line  in  the  open  fields.  He  was 
a  singular  character  in  appearance,  clothes  and 
action,  but    a    remarkably   skillful    marksman    and 


312  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

displayed  a  degree  of  bravery  never  excelled. 
The  poor  fellow  was  wounded  in  the  course  of 
the  afternoon,  and  captured  by  the  Confederates 
but  finally  released,  they  probably  not  fully  under- 
standinij  the  character  of  his  mission  at  the  front. 
Burns  made  for  himself  a  national  reputation. 
The  familiar  story  of  his  record,  which  every  school- 
boy recites  in  the  dashing  lines  of  Bret  Harte,  has 
been  explicitly  told  in  niatter-of-fact  prose,  by  Ser- 
geant George  Eustice  of  Company  F,  as  follows : 


It  must  have  been  aljout  noon  when  I  saw  a  little  old  man  coming  up 
in  the  rear  of  Company  F.  In  regard  to  the  peculiarities  of  his  dress,  I 
remember  he  wore  a  swallow-tailed  coat  with  smooth  brass  buttons.  lie 
had  a  rifle  on  his  shoulder.  We  boys  began  to  poke  fun  at  him  as  soon  as 
he  came  amongst  us,  as  we  thought  no  civilian  in  his  senses  would  show 
himself  in  such  a  place.  Finding  that  he  had  really  come  to  fight  I  wanted 
to  put  a  cartndge-bo.x  on  him  to  make  him  look  like  a  soldier,  telling  him 
he  could  not  fight  without  one.  Slai)ping  his  pantaloons  pocket  he  replied: 
"  I  can  get  my  hands  in  here  quicker  than  in  a  box.  I'm  not  used  to  them 
new-fangled  things."  In  answer  to  the  question  what  possessed  him  to 
come  out  there  at  such  a  time,  he  replied  that  the  rebels  had  either  driven 
away  or  milked  his  cows,  and  that  he  was  going  to  be  even  with  them. 
About  this  time  the  enemy  began  to  advance.  Bullets  were  flying  thicker 
and  faster,  and  we  hugged  the  ground  about  as  close  as  we  could.  lUnns  got 
behind  a  tree  and  surprised  us  all  by  not  taking  a  double-quick  to  the  rear. 
He  was  as  calm  and  collected  as  any  veteran  on  the  ground.  We  soon  had 
orders  to  get  up  and  move  about  a  hundred  yards  to  the  right,  when  we 
were  engaged  in  one  of  the  most  stubborn  contests  I  ever  experienced. 
Foot  by  foot  we  were  driven  back  to  a  point  near  the  seminary,  where  we 
made  a  stand,  but  were  finally  driven  through  the  town  to  Cemetery  Ridge. 
[  never  saw  John  IJurns  after  our  movement  to  the  right,  when  we  left  him 
behind  his  tree,  and  only  know  that  he  was  true  blue  and  grit  to  the  back- 
bone, and  fought  until  he  was  three  times  wounded. 


In  .Scptciiibcr,  on  the  sanL^iiinary  field  of  Cliicka- 
mauga,    Wisconsin    was    represented    by    the    hirst. 


DEEDS    OE    VALOR.  313 

Tenth,  Fifteenth,  Twenty-first  and  Twenty-fourth* 
infantry,  and  the  Ihird,  iMtlh  and  Eighth  batteries, 
all  of  which  fought  most  heroically  and  suffered 
heavy  losses. 

Several  of  these  commands  were  in  the  famous 
left  wing,  under  Thomas,  and  participated  in 
that  slow,  stubborn  and  successful  resistance 
to  Longstreet's  corps,  which  gained  for  Thomas  the 
sobriquet,  "  The  rock  of  Chickamauga."  Later, 
the  same  Wisconsin  troops  were  besieged  in  Chat- 
tanooga, where  they  suffered  great  hardships  from 
the  lack  of  provisions,  until  Grant  opened  up  new 
sources  of  supply  and  introduced  plenty  in  the 
place  of  direful  want.  By  the  middle  of  November, 
Sherman  arrived  on  the  scene  with  the  Fifteenth 
corps,  of  which  the  Eighteenth  Wisconsin  was  a 
member — a  corps  ot  which  its  commander  exult- 
ingly  wrote,  "  I  assert  that  there  is  no  better  body  of 
soldiers  in  America  than  it."  Ten  days  after  Sher- 
man put  in  an  appearance,  the  battle  of  Mission 
Ridge  was  fought,  the  Confederate  army  under 
Bragg  being  completely  defeated  and  sent  flying 
back  into  central  Georgia.  In  this  important 
and  picturesque  action,  the  First,  Tentli,  Fif- 
teenth, Eighteenth,  Twenty-first,  Twenty-fourtli 
and  Tw^enty-sixth  Wisconsin  infantry  proudly 
shared,   encountering   without    a  waver   the   grape 

*  General  Lytle  met  his  death  in  the  rear  of  this  regiment. 


314  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

and  canister  of  the  enemy  during  the  fearful 
charge  to  the  summit. 

At  Warrenton  Junction,  near  the  Rappahannock, 
just  at  the  close  of  day  on  the  seventh  of  November, 
General  Sedgwick,  in  command  of  the  Fifth  and 
Sixth  corps,  received  orders  to  "push  the  enemy 
across  the  river  before  dark,  if  possible."  The 
banks  of  the  stream  were  protected  by  two  Confed- 
erate redoubts,  connected  by  a  curtain  of  rifie-pits. 
Russell  s  division  was  ordered  to  carry  them  by  as- 
sault. The  Fifth  Wisconsin  and  the  Sixth  Maine, 
which  had  so  heroically  charged  Marye's  Hill,  were 
in  front,  and  despite  the  scorching  fire  of  the  enemy 
and  the  rough  ground,  moved  with  steadiness  on 
the  works,  broke  over  the  parapet  and  set  the  Con- 
federates to  rout.  It  was  a  brilliant  affair,  led  by 
the  brave  General  Russell,  and  the  two  regiments 
were  mentioned  with  enthusiasm  in  the  reports. 
Both  General  Meade,  commander  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  and  the  secretary  of  war,  warmly 
congratulated  the  victors  ;  and  well  they  might,  for 
four  guns,  two  thousand  small  arms,  a  bridge-train, 
eight  battle  flags  and  sixteen  hundred  prisoners  had 
been  taken  in  the  heroic  assault. 

At  Carrion  Crow  jjayou,  I^ouisiana,  the  same 
month,  tin-  'I'wenly-lliird  also  won  laurels.  This 
regiment,  with  others  forming  a  column  sent  as  a 
feint  against  ( )])elousas,  was  suri)rised  in  the  woods 


DEEDS   OF   VALOR.  315 

by  a  strong  party  of  Confederates;  the  entire 
Union  force  would  have  been  destroyed  but  for  the 
consummate  bravery  of  the  Twenty-third  Wiscon- 
sin and  Nim  s  battery.  The  regiment  was  quickly 
reduced  in  this  terrible  conflict,  from  two  hundred 
and  twenty-six  men  to  ninety-eight,  its  colonel  being 
wounded  and  captured. 

Wisconsin  soldiers  supped  their  full  share  of 
horrors  in  Confederate  prisons,  being  sometimes 
massed  by  hundreds,  for  months  together,  in  such 
dens  of  despair  as  Belle  Isle,  Danville,  Florence, 
Macon,  Salisbury,  Libby  and  Andersonville.  On 
the  night  of  February  9,  1864,  one  hundred  and 
nine  Union  officers  escaped  from  Libby  prison  by 
means  of  a  tunnel  dug  by  fifteen  prisoners  under 
the  leadership  of  Col.  Thomas  E.  Rose,  of  the  Sev- 
enty-seventh Pennsylvania.  Colonel  Rose  and  the 
working  party  first  passed  out  at  seven  o'clock ; 
arrangements  had  been  made  by  Rose  with  Col. 
H.  C.  Hobart  of  the  Twenty-first  Wisconsin,  to 
carefully  cover  up  the  traces  of  the  fugitives  and 
to  follow  with  a  second  party  of  fifteen,  the  follow- 
ing night.  But  the  escape  of  Rose  and  his  fellow 
workers  became  generally  known  throughout  the 
crowded  prison,  within  two  hours  after  their  depart- 
ure, and  the  scramble  for  the  tunnel  was  so  fierce 
that  Colonel  Hobart  was  oblioed  to  chanoe  the 
plan  and  open  the   passage  to  all.     Of  those  who 


3l6  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

emerged  from  the  sickening  hole,  forty-eight  were 
run  down  and  recaptured  by  the  Confederates, 
among  them  being  Lieut.  Charles  H.  Morgan,  also 
of  the  Twenty-first  Wisconsin. 

In  March,  1864,  Banks  set  out  to  carry  the  war 
into  the  valley  of  the  Red  River,  his  objective  point 
being  Shreveport,  at  the  head  of  steam  navigation 
on  that  water.  The  Wisconsin  troops  in  this  ex- 
pedition were  the  Fourth  Cavalry  and  Eighth, 
Fourteenth,  Twenty-third,  Twenty-ninth  and  Thirty- 
third  infantry  regiments.  The  Eighth,  one  of 
the  bravest  commands  in  the  Union  service,  was 
popularly  known  as  "  The  Eagle  Regiment,"  from 
the  fact  that  the  men  of  Company  C  carried  as 
their  emblem  a  live  eagle  on  a  perch  ;  this  bird, 
named  "  Old  Abe,"  in  compliment  to  the  president, 
was  an  eye-witness  of  thirty-six  battles  and  was  fre- 
quently hit  by  the  enemy's  bullets;  he  appeared  to 
take  creat  deliirht  in  these  scenes  of  carnaije,  and 
in  processions  had  a  self-acquired  habit  of  posing 
on  his  perch  or  upon  a  cannon,  holding  a  corner 
of  the  national  colors  in  his  bill.  It  is  no  exagger- 
ation to  say  that  Old  Abe,  who  attained  a  world- 
wide reputation,  won  as  great  popularity  in  the 
Union  army  as  any  <')f  its  generals;  and  until  his 
death,  in  March,  i.SSi,  he  was  in  active  demand  at 
State  and  national  soldiers'  reunions.  He  was  one 
r)f  the  features   at   the    Northwest    Sanitary  h\air  in 


DEEDS   OF   VALOR.  317 

Chicago,  in  1865  ;  also  at  the  Pliilaclclphia  Centen- 
nial Exposition,  in  1876,  and  at  the  Old  South 
Church  Fair,  in  Boston,  the  winter  of  1878-79.  All 
of  the  Wisconsin  regiments  fought  with  untiring 
valor  in  the  unfortunate  Red  River  campaign.  At 
Sabine  Cross  Roads,  the  Twenty-third  was  the  last 
to  leave  the  field  —  covering  the  retreat. 

The  brightest  honors  of  the  expedition,  however, 
were  won  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Joseph  Bailey, 
of  the  Fourth.  The  fleet  had  been  carried 
safely  above  the  rapids  at  Alexandria,  but  upon  the 
return  it  was  found  the  water  had  lowered,  so  that 
it  was  impossible  to  descend.  The  river  was  rap- 
idly falling,  the  enemy  were  swarming  upon  both 
banks,  the  navy  was  in  a  most  perilous  situation, 
and  complete  destruction  appeared  to  stare  the  ex- 
pedition in  the  face.  The  one  man  who  saved  the 
Union  from  so  irreparable  a  loss,  was  this  modest 
Wisconsin  ofhcer,  who  now  proved  himself  a  genius. 
He  was  servino-  on  General  Franklin's  staff  as  chief 
engineer,  and  proposed  to  build  a  system  of  dams 
by  which  the  river  was  to  be  raised  to  a  sufficient 
height,  then  an  opening  suddenly  made,  through 
which  the  vessels  were  to  escape.  The  scheme 
appeared  a  visionary  one  to  all  of  the  other  engi- 
neers, as  well  as  to  most  of  the  leading  officers ;  but 
while  they  laughed  at  him  as  an  innocent,  he  was 
permitted   to   try   his   proposed   experiment.      With 


v) 


1 8  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 


three  thousand  men  he  toiled  unwearyingly,  from 
the  thirtieth  of  April  to  the  eighth  of  May. 
On  the  morning  of  the  twelfth,  the  great  gunboats 
plunged  through  the  boiling  chute  and  triumph- 
antly steamed  away,  to  the  great  discomfiture  of  the 
Confederates,  who  had  thought  to  capture  the  expe- 
dition in  the  trap.  Admiral  Porter  frankly  wrote 
to  headquarters  that  to  "  the  indomitable  ])ersever- 
ance  and  skill  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bailey,  to 
whom  belongs  the  entire  credit  of  the  enterprise," 
the  fleet  owed  its  safety.  The  hero  of  the  hour  was 
presented  by  the  naval  officers  in  the  expedition 
with  a  sword  costing  eight  hundred  dollars,  was 
thanked  by  the  navy  department  and  soon  after 
brevetted  brigadier-general.  It  was  upon  Wiscon- 
sin pinery  streams,  where  great  log  rafts  are  some- 
times "  lifted  "  by  artificial  rises  of  water,  induced 
by  dams,  that  Bailey  had  learned  his  wisdom ; 
and  it  was  the  Wisconsin  "lumber,  boys  "  of  the 
Twenty-third  and  Twenty-ninth  regiments  that  he 
first  asked  for,  when  given  permission  to  undertake 
his  experiment  in  backwoods  engineering. 

The  Iron  l)rigadt',  now  under  Cutler,  was  in 
Warren's  corps  (the  I''ifth),  in  Grant's  campaign 
against  Ridimond.  It  served  gallantly  and  lost 
heavily  in  the  Wilderness  —  sweeping  through  two 
of  the    Confederate    h'nes   in    the   first  day's  fight  ;* 

•(K-ntTiil  VV.itlsworlli  was  kill.d  wliili-  willi  iIk-  Sivnitli  Wisiniisin. 


DEEDS   OF    VALOR.  319 

it  supported  Hancock  in  the  frightful  hand-to-hand 
struggle  over  the  "  bloody  angle  "  at  Spottsylvania, 
resisting  five  of  the  enemy's  determined  assaults  ; 
it  participated  in  the  battles  of  the  North  Anna 
(Jericho  Ford)  and  Bethesda  Church  ;  was  in  the  as- 
saults on  Petersburg  (June  18  and  July  30,  1864), 
and  fought  at  Weldon  Railroad  and  Hatcher's  Run  ; 
—  at  this  latter  engagement,  the  Seventh  Wisccnsin 
made  a  large  haul  of  prisoners.*  The  Fifth,  also 
in  this  campaign,  captured  a  battery  with  great 
heroism,  at  a  time  when  the  frontline  of  the  Union 
charging  column  had  been  temporarily  checked  ; 
drove  the  Confederates  from  the  field,  at  the  cross- 
ing of  the  North  Anna,  and  repelled  and  made 
numerous  attacks  before  Petersburo:.  The  Nine- 
teenth  won  fame  by  a  splendid  charge  at  Fair  Oaks 
(October  27),  in  which  they  lost  over  half  of  their 
men. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1864,  the  Thirty-sixth, 
Thirty-seventh  and  ThirtN'-eighth  Wisconsin  were 
organized  and  sent  on  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
At  Hatcher's  Run,  the  Thirty-sixth,  which  had 
already  sustained  heavy  losses,!  displayed  great 
valor  by  cutting  through  a  line  of  the  enemy  and 


*  June  10,  1864,  the  Second  Wisconsin,  of  this  brigade,  was  released  from  duty  and 
started  for  home. 

t  In  the  small  but  bloody  engagement  near  Bethesda  Church  (s<inu'tinies  called  the  battle 
of  the  Tolopotomayl,  June  first,  the  Thirty-sixth  suffered  a  loss  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-six 
killed  and  wounded,  or  sixty-nine  per  cent,  of  the  men  taken  into  action. 


2,20  DEEDS    OE   VALOR. 

capturing  three  times  its  own  number  of  prisoners, 
with  arms  and  colors.  The  Thirty-seventh,  which 
exhibited  rare  grit,  suffered  the  misfortune  to  be 
of  the  charging  party  into  the  Petersburg  crater, 
July  30,  1S64,  losing  one  hundred  and  forty-five 
men  out  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  sent  out. 
This  same  regiment,  together  with  the  Thirty- 
eighth  Wisconsin,  assisted,  the  second  of  April, 
1865,  in  the  gallant  charge  on  Fort  Mahone,  one 
of  the  chief  defenses  of  Petersburg.  The  Thirty- 
eighth,  with  the  air  of  veterans,  led  the  attcking 
column,  which  advanced  through  a  terrible  storm 
of  shot  and  shell,  scrambling  over  the  abattis  and 
the  enemy's  works,  driving  the  garrison  out  on  the 
other  side,  and  turning  their  guns  against  them. 
Although  several  attempts  were  made  by  the  Con- 
federates during  the  day,  to  oust  the  captors,  they 
wTre  each  time  repulsed,  and  next  day  Petersburg 
and  Richmond  were  in  the  hands  of  Grant. 

When  Sherman  was  arranging,  in  the  spring  of 
1864,  for  the  Atlantic  campaign  which  Grant  and 
himself  had  projected,  he  drew  heavily  upon  the  Wis- 
consin troops,  selecting  no  less  than  fifteen  Badger 
regiments  and  three  batteries  for  his  model  army, 
which  was  lo  cut  into  the  heart  of  the  Confeder- 
acy—the First,  Third,  Tenth,  Twelfth,  I'ifteenth, 
Sixteenth,  Seventeenth,  Twent v-fir.^t,  Twenty-sec- 
ond,    ']\veiit\-f()urth,     Twenty-fifth,     Twenty-sixth, 


DEEDS    OJ'    VALOA\  321 

Thirty-first  and  Thirty-second  infantry,  the  First 
cavah'y,  and  the  Fiftli,  Tenth  and  Twelfth  bat- 
teries. The  Wisconsin  men  were  continually  under 
fire  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta,  being  represented 
every  day  in  the  strong  skirmish  lines  which  were 
thrown  out  in  advance  of  the  main  army.  At 
Dalton,  seven  regiments  from  the  Badger  State 
were  employed  in  harassing  the  enemy;  at  Resaca, 
eight ;  while  in  the  rash  assault  at  Kenesaw  Mount- 
ain, nine  Wisconsin  regiments  were  engaged.  In 
meeting  the  Confederate  onslaught  from  the  en- 
trenchments on  Peachtree  Creek,  seven  regiments 
from  Wisconsin  were  at  the  front.  "  No  regiment 
ever  did  better,"  Fiohtins:  Joe  Hooker  said,  than 
the  Twenty-sixth  Wisconsin  on  that  occasion  ;  it 
"  received  the  brunt  of  the  battle  on  its  brigade 
front  and  repulsed  it,  and  followed  it  by  a  spirited 
charge."  The  Eisfhteenth  was  stationed  at  Alia- 
toona  Pass,  during  the  campaign,  and,  in  company 
with  the  Twelfth  battery,  won  distinction,  October 
fifth,  by  assisting  in  the  defense  of  the  pass  against 
repeated  assaults  from  a  greatly  superior  force  of 
the  enemy. 

During  this  movement  on  Atlanta,  the  Wisconsin 
Twelfth  and  Sixteenth  were  a  part  of  McPherson's 
"whip-lash  corps,"  which  distinguished  itself  for  a 
series  of  quick  flank  movements  that  continually 
astonished,    and    resulted    in    ousting,    the    enemy. 


32  2  DEEDS    OF   VALOR. 

When  the  Confederates  furiously  stormed  the  left 
of  the  Union  position  before  Atlanta  itself,  these 
two  re2:iments,  thous^h  attacked  both  in  front  and 
in  rear,  carried  Leggitt 's  Hill  by  assault  and  kept 
it.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Confederates  in 
Atlanta  sallied  out  and  again  assailed  the  brave 
Wisconsin  men  in  the  rear,  but  the  latter  jumped 
over  the  breastworks  and  fought  from  the  other 
side.  It  was  a  desperate  encounter,  each  opposing 
force  keeping  its  own  side  of  the  works,  until  the 
Confederates  crept  away  in  the  dark.  General 
Howard  said,  in  commenting  on  this  hand-to-hand 
struggle,  "  I  never  saw  better  conduct  in  battle." 
While  Logan  declared,  that  "  The  troops  could  not 
have  displayed  greater  courage  nor  greater  deter- 
mination not  to  give  ground.  Had  they  shown 
less,  they  would  have  been  driven  from  the  posi- 
tion." When,  early  in  September,  the  Union 
army  marched  into  /Vtlanta,  the  Twenty-second 
and  'i\venty-sixth  Wisconsin  were  among  the  first 
to  enter  the  forsaken  town  —  Company  A  of  the 
Twenty-second  claiming  to  have  led  the  advance 
of  the  exultant  conquerors. 

When  Sherman  set  out  from  Atlanta,  the  fif- 
teenth of  November,  u])on  his  famous  march  to  the 
sea,  he  was  accompanied  ])y  eleven  of  Wisconsin's 
infantr\'  i-egiments  and  three  of  her  batteries. 
Men  from  these  commands  were  detailed  for  every 


DEEDS   OF   VALOR.  323 

branch  of  the  work  of  destruction  which  was  to 
carry  the  war  home  to  those  people  of  the  South 
who  egged  on  and  aided  the  Rebellion,  yet  were  not 
themselves  combatants.  Wisconsin  men  were  in 
the  long  skirmish  lines  ;  formed  part  of  the  flank- 
ing parties ;  lived  the  rollicking  life  of  "  bummers  ;  " 
tore  up  railroad  tracks  by  the  mile  and  twisted  the 
heated  rails  into  "  Jeff  Davis's  neckties;"  applied 
the  torch  to  railway  depots,  and  the  barns  and 
mills  of  the  wealthy  planters  ;  guarded  the  fugitive 
blacks  who,  in  mighty  swarms,  followed  the  advanc- 
ing columns,  chanting  strange  hymns  of  jubilee.  As 
the  great  army  swept  resistlessly  through  the  heart 
of  the  South,  Wisconsin  troops  were  everywhere 
prominent,  being  relied  upon  by  Sherman  for  the 
hardest  work  and  wherever  discretion  was  as  need- 
ful as  valor.  They  lost  heavily  in  the  subsequent 
siege  of  Savannah,  and  the  difficult  advance  north- 
ward through  the  Carolinas,  in  the  early  months  of 
1865,  but  were  never  defeated. 

It  was  evident,  in  early  April,  that  the  end  of  the 
war  was  near,  and  the  men  of  Sherman's  army  were 
eager  for  the  proposed  junction  with  Grant  and  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac ;  after  their  long  and  weary 
march  they  had  hoped  to  be  "  in  at  the  death," 
to  help  conquer  Lee's  army  and  the  Confederate 
capital.  But  this  great  honor  was  not  reserved  for 
them.     They  had  reached  Goldsboro',  N.  C,  April 


324  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 

sixth,  when  news  came  that  Richmond  had  fallen  and 
Lee  was  hastening  to  join  his  lieutenant,  Johnston. 
The  course  of  Sherman's  army  was  now  changed. 
Instead  of  Richmond,  he  made  Raleigh  his  objec- 
tive point,  trusting  to  intercept  Johnston  either 
there  or  at  Smithfield.  They  were  at  Smithfield 
on  the  eleventh,  and  it  was  now  known  that  John- 
ston was  retreating  to  Raleigh.  On  the  road 
thither,  the  following  day,  a  horseman  dashing 
alono-  the  gleaming  lines  shouted  the  joyful  mes- 
sao-e,  "  Grant  has  captured  Lee's  army  !  "  There 
was  heartfelt  gratitude,  then,  to  the  God  of  battles  ; 
sweet  visions  of  home  rose  before  the  tear-dampened 
eyes  of  the  boys  of  Wisconsin,  along  with  the  boys 
from  every  other  loyal  State  ;  at  last  "  the  cruel 
war  w^as  over,"  or  practically  so;  peace  w'ould  soon 
rei^n,  the  Union  was  saved.  In  a  few  days  more, 
it  was  indeed  over.  The  nation  wavered  betwixt 
her  sorrow  and  her  joy,  doubtful  whether  tears 
or  hosannas  were  most  appropriate;  for  Lincoln 
had  been  foully  assassinated,  yet  his  work  was  done, 
for  Johnston  had  surrendered  and  the  Confederacy 
was  crushed. 

Upon  the  very  day  when  Lee  was  treating  with 
Grant,  Mol^ile  fell.  In  the  decisive  assault  on 
Sp.misli  I'ort,  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  the  even- 
ino  b.forc,  tlu'  Twc-ntietli,  Twenty-ninth,  Thirty- 
lliird     and     'l"iiiil\ -fiftli    Wisconsin    were    i)resent. 


DEEDS    OF    VALOR.  325 

While  in  the  fierce  attack  on  \hn\.  HIakcly,  the 
Eleventh,  Twenty-third  and  Twenty-ninth  were  en- 
gaged, the  assaulting  party  of  the  Eleventh  winning- 
special  honors. 

In  the  operations  around  Nashville,  Tenn.,  dur- 
ing November  and  December  previous,  Wisconsin 
infantry  had  prominently  figured.  The  Twenty- 
fourth  was  with  Schofield  at  Franklin,  where  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  November,  Hood  made  a  fierce 
onslaught  on  the  Union  advance.  At  Nashville, 
December  sixteenth,  the  Eighth,  Twenty-fourth  and 
Thirty-third  regiments  were  part  of  Thomas's  army, 
which  crushed  Hood's  left  flank  and  hurled  the 
Confederates  back  toward  Franklin  in  wild  confu- 
sion, and  with  heavy  loss  of  artillery  and  prisoners. 
The  W'isconsin  regiments  had  suffered  their  full 
share  of  Thomas's  loss  of  about  three  thousand. 

The  cavalrymen  of  Wisconsin  were  not  behind 
her  infantry,  in  their  record  as  hard  fighters.  The 
First  regiment  of  cavalry  wrought  valiant  deeds  the 
first  year  of  the  war,  in  scouting  and  in  dispersing 
guerrilla  bands  in  Missouri.  In  Tennessee,  it  soon 
became  noted  for  its  gallant  forays.  It  fought  and 
raided  at  Chickamauga,  was  with  Sherman  in  the 
Atlanta  campaign,  afterwards  fought  its  way  with 
Wilson  in  his  notable  raid  through  Alabama  and 
Georgia  ;  it  dismounted  at  West  Point  and  assisted 
in  the  assault  of  Fort  Tyler,  which   was  captured 


o 


26  DEEDS   OF    VALOK. 


after  a  desperate  fight.  At  Macon,  came  the  news 
of  Lee's  surrender  and  Davis's  flight.  Thereupon 
a  detachment  from  the  First,  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Henry  Harnden,  took  the  direct  road  to 
Irwinsville,  in  the  pursuit  of  the  fugitive  president 
of  the  Confederacy.  It  arrived  at  the  camp  of 
Davis  on  the  tenth  of  May,  a  moment  too  late  to 
make  the  actual  capture  ;  for  a  detachment  from  the 
Fourth  Michigan  cavalry  had,  unknown  to  Colonel 
Harnden,  taken  another  road  and  arrested  the 
president  and  his  companions  just  as  the  advance 
of  Harnden's  command  came  in  sight.  The  Wis- 
consin men  were,  after  a  thorough  investigation, 
given  a  full  share  of  the  honor  and  reward  ac- 
corded the  captors  of  the  Confederate  chief. 

The  Second  Wisconsin  cavalry  served  in  the 
Vicksburg  campaign,  was  in  Grierson's  raid,  and 
marched  and  skirmished  all  over  Louisiana,  Texas 
and  Arkansas.  The  Third  was  largely  engaged  in 
pursuing  and  fighting  guerrillas  in  Arkansas,  hav- 
ing many  brushes  with  Quantrell's  band  ;  while  at 
Prairie  Grove  it  made  a  particularly  brilliant  record. 
The  P'ourth  served  at  first  as  infantry,  but  in  Sep- 
tember, 1S63,  was  mounted  as  cavalry  and  had  a 
dashing  career  in  Louisiana  and  Texas,  capturing 
prisoiK'is  in  niim])ers  several  times  exceeding  its 
own.  It  has  been  claimed  that  the  Fourth  —  which 
rcnde/Aouscd   at    ivaciiu',  June  sixth,  1861,  and  was 


DEEDS   OF   VALOR.  327 

disbanded  at  Madison,  about  June  twentieth,  1S66 
—  served  the  longest  term  of  any  volunteer  regi- 
ment in  the  service. 

The  artillerymen,  too,  were  distributed  through- 
out the  several  Union  armies,  and  served  with 
great  distinction  until  the  close  of  the  war.  To 
the  navy,  Wisconsin  contributed  but  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  men,  and  to  the  colored  troops 
one  hundred  and  sixty-five.  In  the  scouting  ser- 
vice, Wisconsin  soldiers  were  employed  in  many 
portions  of  the  South,  and  the  story  of  their  thrill- 
ing adventures  and  important  services  would  make 
an  interesting  volume.  In  the  hospitals,  too,  Wis- 
consin women  nobly  wrought,  and  the  Sanitary 
Commission  numbered  them  amoni^  its  tireless 
workers. 

The  war  expenses  of  the  State  footed  up  to 
$11,704,932.55.  She  furnished  91,327  men,  who 
were  divided  into  fifty-three  regiments  of  infantry, 
four  of  cavalry*  and  one  of  heavy  artillery,  besides 
thirteen  light  batteries.  Of  these  men,  3,802  were 
either  killed  outright  or  mortally  wounded,  while 
8,499  met  death  from  other  causes  —  chiefly  disease, 
bad  treatment  in  Confederate  prisons  and  accidents. 
This  made  the  Wisconsin  death-roll  12,301,  an 
average  of  16.6  per  cent,  of  the  total  enlistment. 
If  these  statistics  have  a  dry  appearance,  we  must 

*  The  Fourth  cavalry  was  originallv  (lie  Fourth  infantry. 


328  DEEDS    OF    VALOR. 


remember  that  each  unit  in  the  computation  of  dis- 
aster meant  an  empty  chair  at  some  Wisconsin  fire- 
side, bleeding  hearts  in  some  Wisconsin  home. 

It  was  not  long  after  the  famous  meeting  at 
Appomattox,  before  Wisconsin  troops  came  march- 
ing honie  again,  by  regiments  and  battalions, 
covered  with  glory  —  they  had  fought  in  nearly 
every  important  battle  in  the  war —  and  bronzed 
by  long  exposure  to  Southern  skies.  There 
were  rejoicings  all  along  the  line.  In  the  towns 
where  they  were  mustered  out,  there  were  recep- 
tions and  banquets  and  speeches.  School  children 
lined  the  arched  and  festooned  streets,  waving 
banners  and  scattering  flowers  before  the  war- 
worn heroes  of  Badgerdom.  Everywhere,  the 
s})irit  of  solemn  festivity  was  abroad,  and  honors 
were  heaped  upon  the  brave.  But  beneath  this 
show  of  gladness,  away  from  the  sound  of  boom- 
ing guns,  the  blare  of  trumpets,  the  swell  of  choral 
praise,  the  mellow  notes  of  oratory,  there  was  bit- 
terness enough.  Out  in  the  residence  quarters  of 
the  cities,  away  off  in  the  rural  villages,  among  the 
farmhouses,  where  the  individual  warriors  dwelt,  the 
communities  to  which  they  hurried  back  when  ranks 
were  at  last  broken,  sorrow^  reigned.  Husbands, 
fatlu'rs,  sons,  brothers,  who  had  g()ne  forth  in  the 
prime  of  manhood,  too  often  ix-turned  mei'e  wrecks 
of     their    former     selves;      while     other    husbands, 


DEEDS   OF    VALOR.  329 

fathers,  sons  and  l^rothcrs  had  been  left  upon 
Southern  battle-fields  or  had  died  in  the  swamps  or 
fallen  victims  to  the  wretched  sanitary  conditions 
of  camps,  transports  and  Confederate  prison-pens. 
The  Union  had  been  saved  at  frightful  cost.  Yet, 
despite  it  all,  there  were  none  to  say  that  the  })rice 
paid  for  national  honor  and  for  the  freedom  of  man 
had  been  too  great.  Had  occasion  demanded, 
there  were  none  so  stricken  that  they  would  not 
have  freely  renewed  their  terrible  sacrifice.  Spar- 
tans were  never  more  devoted  patriots  than  were 
the  people  of  the  North,  even  when  nursing  their 
greatest  sorrow.  They  paused  to  weep  over  the 
ashes  of  their  dead,  only  when  the  enemy  had  been 
crushed.  The  great  struggle  had  developed  a 
nation  of  heroes.  In  this  development,  Wisconsin 
nobly  shared. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


SINCE    THE    WAR. 


HE  cost  of  the  war  to 
Wisconsin,  in  blood 
and  treasure,  had  in- 
deed been  great.  Yet 
it  is  surprising  how 
soon  she  recovered 
from  the  blow.  The 
State  was  filled  with 
rich  mines,  unused 
water-powers,  virgin 
forests  and  fertile  fields,  which  inxited  immigrants 
from  the  East  and  from  Europe  by  tens  of  thou- 
sands. Fresh  blood  poured  into  every  community, 
capital  flowed  to  the  West,  new  industries  sprung 
u{),  more  railroads  were  built,  and  very  soon  the 
Cfjinmonwealth  was  makino;  Q^iant  strides.  The  era 
of  progress  dawned,  when  the  clouds  of  civil  strife 
had  rlisappeared  from  the  horizon. 

The  length  of  Wisconsin  from  north  to  south,  is 
three  hundred  miles,  while  it  is  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  in  breadth,  and   lias  a  shore   line  of  five 

33» 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  331 

hundred  along  the  Great  Lakes.  It  has  few  hills 
rising  over  four  hundred  feet  above  their  bases,  and 
they  chiefly  along  the  Wisconsin  and  Mississippi 
rivers ;  the  highest  elevations  are  about  eighteen 
hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean,  and  the 
lowest  portions  of  the  State  are  six  hundred.  There 
are  some  two  thousand  minor  lakes,  nearly  all  of 
them  in  the  eastern  and  northern  portions,  the 
result  of  glacial  action ;  numerous  waterfalls  also 
occur  in  those  sections,  many  of  them  being  used 
as  power  for  the  driving  of  machinery.  The  scen- 
ery of  Wisconsin  is  never  rugged,  but  abounds  in 
pleasing  effects.  Gentle  hill-slopes  are  freely  inter- 
spersed with  rolling  prairies,  and  the  numerous 
river  valleys  and  lake  basins  add  a  charming 
variety  to  the  landscape.  The  broad  valleys  of  the 
Mississippi  and  Wisconsin  are  edged  with  bluffs 
often  rising  abruptly  to  a  height  of  from  two  hun- 
dred to  seven  hundred  feet,  affording  views  to  the 
canoeist  sometimes  comparable  to  those  met  on 
Lake  George.  Other  rivers  there  are,  where  now 
the  dark,  dense  forest  closely  hems  in  the  glistening 
flood ;  and  now  fair  prairie-stretches  or  upland 
glades,  bathed  in  mellow  sunlight,  gladden  the  eye 
of  the  voyager.  Whether  the  traveler  takes  the 
waterway  or  the  roadway,  journeys  through  the  low- 
lands, or  views  the  State  from  the  hilltops,  beauty 
of  landscape  often  greets  his  vision. 


332  SINCE    THE    IVAJ^. 

In  the  central  zone,  there  is  a  large  sandy  area  of 
comparatively  low  fertility;  but  elsewhere  the  soils 
are  highly  fertile  and  easily  tilled.  Originally,  the 
greater  part  of  the  surface  of  the  State  was  heavily 
forested,  with  prairies  and  groves  in  the  southwest. 
The  present  forest  area  of  the  State  is  48.8  per 
cent,  of  the  whole.  Hard  timber  prevails  in  the 
south  ;  the  northern  half  of  the  State  is  given  up 
to  an  almost  unbroken  forest  of  pine  and  kindred 
trees,  with  a  free  intermingling  of  hard  woods. 
The  climate  is  such  as  is  usually  found  in  interior 
territories,  in  the  temperate  zone  ;  but  the  prox- 
imity of  the  Great  Lakes  has  the  effect  to  elevate 
the  temperature  in  winter  and  depress  it  in  summer. 

Wisconsin's  lumbering  interests  are  especially  im- 
portant, being  only  exceeded  in  value  by  those  of 
Michigan  and  Pennsylvania.  Railroads  are  push- 
ing through  the  forests  in  every  direction,  opening 
up  new  belts  of  woods,  competing  with  the  uncer- 
tain rivers  for  the  transportation  of  logs  and  lumber, 
and  creating  a  tendency  to  move  the  saw-mills 
nearer  to  the  sources  of  supply.  Operations  are 
now  chiefly  carried  on  upon  the  St.  Croix,  Chippewa, 
Red  Cedar,  Yellow  and  Black,  of  those  rivers  emp- 
tying into  the  Ujjper  MississipjDi  ;  the  Wisconsin, 
running  through  the  center  of  the  State,  and  the 
Wolf,  Mcnomonee,  Peshtigo  and  Oconto,  pouring 
into  (ircen    Bay.      Large    numbers   of   men   and   an 


S/ACE    THE    WAR.  y^^i 

immense  capital  are  employed  in  this  industry,  and 
nearly  all  towns  in  Northern  Wisconsin  are  at  pres- 
ent chiefly  dependent  upon  it  for  support.  But  the 
lumber  business  is  necessarily  of  temporary  endur- 
ance, and  wasteful  in  its  effect.  As  soon  as  one 
district  has  been  denuded  of  its  timber  the  lumber- 
men operating  in  it  must  pull  up  stakes  and  move  to 
another;  and  the  communities  which  have  grown  up 
in  consequence  of  the  early  establishment  of  this 
industry  in  their  neighborhood,  must  soon  suffer 
decay  or  encourage  new  enterprises  in  their  midst. 
Such  original  lumber  towns  as  Oshkosh  have  been 
enabled  to  continue  upon  a  prosperous  plane  after 
the  decadence  of  their  logging  interests,  by  estab- 
lishing varied  manufactures  of  a  more  permanent 
character. 

One  of  the  great  dangers  arising  from  the  build- 
ing of  large  towns  in  the  heart  of  the  forest  is  that 
of  fires.  Sometimes  these  communities  are  closely 
hemmed  in  by  dense  pine  woods,  stretching  in 
every  direction  for  scores  or  perhaps  hundreds  of 
miles.  The  buildings  and  sidewalks  are  generally 
of  wood,  and  the  streets  are  for  the  most  part  either 
planked  or  carpeted  with  sawdust;  while  almost 
invariably  the  low  places  have  been  filled  in  with 
saw-mill  of¥a1.  In  the  midst  of  the  heated  season, 
after  a  long  drought,  when  the  resinous  forest  and 
the  wooden  towns  are   highly  inflammable,  a  spark 


334  SINCE    THE    WAR. 

from  a  passing  locomotive,  or  a  saw-mill  smoke- 
stack, or  perhaps  a  stray  brand  from  a  hunter's 
camp-fire,  may  start  the  fatal  blaze.  Then  it  sweeps 
through  the  country  with  the  besom  of  destruction. 
Forests  and  towns  go  down  before  it  like  chaff,  and 
human  beings  have  been  swallowed  up  by  hun- 
dreds in  the  merciless,  leaping  flames.  Such  dis- 
asters have  been  the  fate  of  several  Wisconsin 
communities  in  the  northern  woods.  The  most  ap- 
palling of  these  horrors  occurred  during  the  eighth 
and  ninth  of  October,  1871.  A  forest  conflagra- 
tion, one  of  the  greatest  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
swept  over  portions  of  Oconto,  Brown,  Door,  Sha- 
wano, Manitowoc  and  Kewaunee  counties,  con- 
suming everything  in  its  path.  Over  one  thousand 
lives  were  lost,  nearly  as  many  persons  were  mis- 
erably crippled,  and  three  thousand  were  beggared. 
The  terrible  casualty  was  felt  most  heavily  at  the 
town  of  Peshtigo,  on  the  shores  of  lower  Green  Bay. 
Nearly  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  raised 
for  the  sufferers,  and  expended  understate  control. 
Of  late  years,  increased  care  upon  the  part  of  lum- 
bermen and  railway  companies  has  much  lessened 
the  number  and  extent  of  forest  fires. 

Wisconsin's  first  American  settlers  were  miners, 
who  operated  the  lead  and  zinc  region  in  the  south- 
western j)()rli<)n  of  IIk'  State.  The  l)est  leads  were 
exhausted  after  a  quarter  of  a  century  of   working. 


SINCE    THE    n'AA\  335 

and  the  industry  then  srmk  into  comparative  insig- 
nificance. The  discovery  of  lead  in  connection 
with  the  silver  mines  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as- 
sisted in  lowering  the  value  of  the  Wisconsin 
product. 

Within  the  past  few  years,  new  finds  have  caused 
something  of  a  revival  in  the  lead  and  zinc  interests 
of  the  State.  In  iron-mining,  Wisconsin  occupied 
in  1880  the  sixth  position  among  the  States  of  the 
Union.  The  Huronian  formation,  in  the  Menomo- 
nee  region  and  along  the  Montreal  River,  contains 
the  most  extensive  iron  deposits  —  the  product  of 
the  entire  range  being  eight  hundred  thousand  tons 
in  1886.  In  the  Montreal,  or  Gogebic  range,  there 
is  a  rich  deposit  of  Bessemer  ore.  In  1886-87, 
there  was  a  wild  fever  of  speculation  among  the 
people  of  the  State,  in  the  stock  of  the  Gogebic 
iron  mines.  Thousands  of  citizens,  many  of  them 
occupying  the  highest  official,  professional  and 
social  positions,  invested  heavily  in  this  paper.  A 
few  were  shrewd  enough  to  unload  upon  the 
rapidly-rising  market  and  realized  large  profits ; 
but  the  majority  were  sadly  bitten  when  the  re- 
action came,  in  1888,  It  was  found  that  while 
there  were  several  paying  mines  in  the  district,  the 
bulk  of  the  stock  on  the  market  was  issued  upon 
worthless  holes  in  the  ground.  Legitimate  oper- 
ators continue   to  make   money  in  the   region,  and 


336  SINCE    THE    WAR. 


now  that  tlie  speculative  craze  is  over,  the  business 
has  settled  into  steady-g-oing  channels. 

Nearly  sixty  thousand  men  are  employed  in  the 
manufactories  of  the  State,  and  nearly  seventy-five 
million  dollars  are  invested  in  them.  According 
to  the  census  of  1885,  somewhat  over  twenty-seven 
million  dollars'  worth  of  lumber,  shingles  and  laths 
were  turned  out ;  twenty  million  dollars'  worth  of 
milling  products;  fourteen  million  dollars'  worth 
of  wooden  articles  ;  over  ten  million  dollars'  worth 
of  iron  products  and  manufactures  in  iron  ;  nine 
million  dollars  in  leather  manufactures;  five  million 
dollars  in  wagons,  carriages  and  sleighs ;  and  mis- 
cellaneous goods  in  proportion.  In  the  one  item 
of  beer-making,  there  were  brewed  in  Wisconsin 
durine  the  twelve  months  endino-  the  thirtieth  of 
June,  1889,  no  less  than  1,789,513  barrels,  worth 
nearly  eleven  million  dollars,  and  the  business  is 
steadily  on  the  increase.  The  State  stands  fifth  in 
this  industry,  being  excelled  in  the  order  named,  by 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Illinois.  The 
industry  is  chiefly  centered  in  Milwaukee.  The  sales 
in  that  city  ahjne,  during  the  period  mentioned, 
being  1,364,980  barrels,  which  were  shipped  to  all 
parts  of  the  civilized  world.  New  York  City,  St. 
Louis  and  Chicago  alone  exceed  this  record.  In 
the  census  year  of  iSSo,  the  slaughtered  animals 
and    meat  |)ackin''    pi-odiicl    wcrc^   \'alu('(l    at    nearly 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  y- 


.•)/ 


seven  million  dollars,  and  the  manufacture  of  agri- 
cultural implements  at  nearly  four  million  dollars. 
Remarkable  progress  has  been  made,  and  new 
manufactures  are  being  continually  introduced. 

There  has  been  the  usual  number  of  labor 
troubles,  in  connection  with  Wisconsin  manufac- 
turing. But  few  of  these,  however,  have  devel- 
oped into  riots.  In  mid-summer,  1861,  the  men 
employed  in  the  Eau  Claire  saw-mills,  who  had 
been  accustomed  to  regard  eleven  hours  as  a  day's 
work,  suddenly  struck  for  ten  hours  and  would 
have  carried  out  their  threats  of  destruction  to  mill- 
properties  had  not  the  militia  been  called  out  and 
a  bloodless  peace  secured.  In  May,  1886,  the 
employes  of  the  rolling  mills  and  several  other 
manufactories  at  Milwaukee  and  its  industrial 
suburb,  Bay  View,  struck  to  enforce  the  adoption 
of  the  eight-hour  day.  They  carried  matters  with 
a  high  hand,  and  the  militia,  now  well  organized 
and  equipped,  was  again  summoned.  This  time, 
the  mob  was  so  unruly  that  it  had  to  be  fired 
upon  with  ball  cartridges,  seven  persons  being 
killed  and  several  wounded.  In  July,  1S89,  the 
State  troops  were  sent  to  West  Superior,  to  quell 
disorder  on  the  part  of  striking  employes  of  cer- 
tain street  contractors  and  mill-owners.  Quiet  was 
finally  restored  without  the  necessity  of  repeating 
the  lesson  taueht  to  the  Milwaukee  rioters. 


338  SINCE    THE    WAR. 


Asfriculture  is  still  the  main  resource  of  the  Com- 
monvvealth.  The  State  census  of  1885  estimated 
that  a  third  of  a  million  persons  were  engaged  in 
tilling:  the  soil,  while  the  value  of  farms  and  the 
year's  agricultural  products  footed  up  to  the  enor- 
mous sum  of  $568,187,288.  While  considerable 
small-grain,  corn,  hay  and  miscellaneous  field-crops 
are  yet  raised,  the  State  is  chiefly  remarkable  for 
its  dairy  products,  which  are  now  recognized  as 
anion e  the  finest  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  and 
are  shipped  in  great  quantities  to  the  Eastern  States 
and  to  Europe.  Tobacco-raising  is  extensively  en- 
gaged in,  particularly  in  Dane  and  Rock  Counties, 
there  being  some  thirty  thousand  acres  devoted  to 
the  narcotic  weed.  Several  flourishing  towns  in 
Southern  Wisconsin,  notably  Edgerton  and  Stough- 
ton,  derive  a  very  considerable  income  from  their 
laree  and  numerous  warehouses  where  the  leaves 
are  prepared  and  packed  for  market.  The  State 
also  furnishes  to  the  markets  of  the  country  large 
shipments  of  blueberries,  chiefly  picked  by  Indians 
in  the  sandy  central  zone  ;  and  cranberries,  which 
are  raised  on  immense  and  carefully-cultivated 
marshes,  particularly  along  the  Fox  and  Black 
Rivers. 

With  her  five  hundred  miles  of  coast  on  the 
Great  Lakes,  the  fisheries  of  Wisconsin  are  natu- 
rally  iinporlaiit   and  rai)al)le  of    still   greater  devel- 


S/A'CE    THE    WAR.  339 

opment.  The  lake-shore  catch  in  1888,  amounted, 
principally  in  white  fish  and  lake-trout,  to  nearly 
nine  million  pounds,  valued  at  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-one thousand  dollars.  Over  six  hundred  men 
are  engaged  in  the  business,  and  the  value  of  the 
property  employed  amounts  to  somewhat  over  a 
third  of  a  million  dollars.  The  fisheries  on  the 
inland  lakes  and  rivers,  where  bass,  pike,  pickerel, 
sturgeon  and  brook-trout  abound,  give  recreation 
and  amusement  to  the  people  and  form  one  of  the 
attractions  which  draw  to  Wisconsin  each  summer 
scores  of  thousands  of  tourists  from  the  Eastern 
and  Southern  States.  The  fishing  interests  are 
under  the  control  of  a  State  commission,  which 
conducts  large  establishments  at  Madison  and  Mil- 
waukee for  the  artificial  propagation  ot  trout,  wall- 
eyed pike,  carp,  land-locked  salmon  and  white  fish. 
The  bays  of  the  Great  Lakes  are  annually  stocked 
with  white  fish  and  the  inland  waters  with  the 
other  varieties  named. 

Railways  have,  since  the  war,  been  built  with 
marvelous  rapidity  throughout  Wisconsin  in  every 
direction,  and  there  are  now  few  localities,  even  in 
the  deepest  forests,  that  are  many  miles  from  a 
station.  On  the  thirty-first  of  December,  1889, 
there  were  fifty-three  hundred  and  ninety  miles 
of  railroad  operated  within  the  State,  the  leading 
lines  being  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  the 


340  SINCE    THE    ]VAR. 

Chicago  &  Northwestern,  the  Wisconsin  Central, 
the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  &  Omaha,  the 
Milwaukee,  Lake  Shore  &  Superior,  the  Minne- 
apolis, St.  Paul  &  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  Milwaukee 
&  Northern,  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Northern, 
and  the  Green  Ba}',  Winona  &  St.  Paul.  The  story 
of  the  first  inception  of  some  of  these  modern 
highways  of  civilization  has  been  elsewhere  told. 
They  met  their  first  serious  check  in  1S74,  when 
the  legislature  passed  what  was  popularly  called 
"  the  Potter  law."  This  act  undertook  to  regulate 
the  railroads  by  establishing  fixed  freight  and  pas- 
senger charges,  and  by  providing  for  a  board  of 
three  railway  commissioners  to  enforce  the  man- 
date of  the  State.  The  legislature  adjourned  on  the 
thirteenth  of  March.  Upon  the  twenty-seventh  of 
April,  the  presidents  of  the  two  principal  roads,  the 
"  St.  Paul  "  and  the  "  Northwestern,"  officially  in- 
formed Governor  Taylor  —  who  had  been  elected 
on  a  "  Reform,"  or  "  Anti-monopoly  "  ticket  —  that 
their  respective  corporations  would  disobey  the  law. 
Thereupon,  the  authorities  of  the  Commonwealth 
asked  the  State  supreme  court  for  leave  to  bring 
suits  for  the  forfeiture  of  the  charters  of  the  dis- 
obedient lines.  This  permission  was  promptly 
granted  by  tlie  court,  and  action  was  commenced 
by  the  State  in  the  nature  of  a  quo  wari'anto  to 
vacate   their    charters    and    annul    their    existence. 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  34 1 

The  companies  contended  that  the  arbitrary  rates 
fixed  by  the  law  would  "  amount  to  confiscation,  as 
the  working  expenses  could  scarcely  be  paid  under 
it,"  and  at  once  adhered  to  their  former  rates.  The 
governor  issued  a  proclamation  calling  upon  the 
rebellious  corporations  to  peaceably  submit  to  the 
statute,  otherwise  all  the  functions  of  his  office  would 
be  exercised  to  the  end  that  the  law  be  faithfully 
executed.  Here  was  open  war  between  the  State 
and  the  railroads,  and  public  interest  reached  a  high 
pitch  of  excitement.  At  this  point,  an  injunction 
was  applied  for  in  the  United  States  district  court 
at  Madison,  in  the  name  of  the  creditors  of  the 
Northwestern  railway — who  claimed  that  their 
securities  were  weakened  or  destroyed  by  the  Pot- 
ter law  —  to  restrain  the  State  from  institutino; 
fixed  tariffs.  In  June,  the  case  came  up  in  the 
United  States  court,  and  a  month  later,  after  an 
elaborate  legal  contest,  the  court,  so  far  as  the 
motion  was  concerned,  sustained  the  validity  of  the 
law;  but  as  there  was  still  further  involved  a  nice 
constitutional  question  relative  to  the  regulation  of 
commerce  between  States,  the  decision  was  not 
final,  the  case  being  left  open  for  further  argument. 
Meanwhile,  the  State  supreme  court  was  asked 
by  the  attorney-general  to  enjoin  the  companies 
against  further  disobedience  of  the  law.  Another 
long  legal  fight   ensued,  which   attracted    national 


342  SINCE    THE    WAR. 

attention,  with  the  result  that  on  the  twenty-fifth 
of  September,  Chief  Justice  Ryan  announced  the 
decision  of  the  court,  sustaining  the  Potter  law  and 
the  right  of  the  State  to  control  corporations  within 
its  limits.  The  writs  of  injunction  were  issued,  but 
the  attorney-general  was  instructed  not  to  prosecute 
the  companies  for  forfeiture  of  their  charters  until 
the  latter  were  given  a  reasonable  time  to  arrange 
their  rates  of  toll  under  the  law.  The  companies 
thereupon  submitted,  beaten  at  every  point;  but 
the  law  was  subsequently  modified  by  the  legisla- 
ture, and  since  that  day  the  relations  between  the 
railways  and  the  State  have  been  without  serious 
friction. 

The  population  of  Wisconsin  aggregates  about 
one  million,  seven  hundred  thousand.  Originally 
settled  by  the  F'rench  fur-traders  and  their  engages, 
there  was  no  sensible  growth  until  the  arrival  of 
Americans  in  the  lead  mines,  about  the  year  1825. 
These  came  from  Southern  Illinois,  Missouri  and 
Kentucky,  and  introduced  a  small  element  of  negro 
slaves  as  servants  and  minino;  hands.  The  aoricul- 
tural  colonists  and  early  professional  men  who  rushed 
into  Wisconsin  u})on  the  close  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  in  i<S32,  were  chiefly  from  New  England  and 
the  intervcniiiL;  I'^ask-rn  States.  A  heavy  immigra- 
tion fioiii  the  more  densely  popiilnted  sections  of  the 
Union  has  ever  since   been  maintained;    but  it  was 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  343 

not  long"  before  Wisconsin  came  to  be  regarded 
with  peculiar  favor  by  emigrants  from  European 
countries,  particularly  Germany  and  Scandinavia; 
even  before  the  Civil  War  the  State  had  attracted 
general  attention  because  of  its  laroe  element  of 
foreign-born  citizens.  Since  the  war,  this  feature 
has  become  more  strongly  marked  than  ever.  In 
1880,  the  national  census  disclosed  the  presence  in 
the  State  of  enough  foreign-born  people  to  number 
30.81  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population,  and  the 
census  of  1890  somewhat  increased  this  ratio.  As 
a  large  number  of  the  immigrants  are  men,  it  is 
probable  that  about  one  half  of  the  voters  of  the 
Commonwealth  are  of  foreign  birth.  The  principal 
nationalities  now  colonized  within  the  State,  rank 
in  strength  as  follows :  Germans,  Scandinavians, 
Irish,  natives  of  Great  Britain,  Canadians,  Bohe- 
mians, Hollanders  and  French. 

Wisconsin  probably  contains  a  greater  variety  of 
foreign  groups  than  any  other  American  State. 
Many  of  these  occupy  entire  townships,  and  control 
within  them  all  political,  educational  and  ecclesias- 
tical affairs.  There  are,  here  and  there,  genuine 
communities  where  property  is  held  in  common  and 
strangers  are  carefully  excluded,  such  as  the  St. 
Nazian  Roman  Catholic  community,  in  Manitowoc 
County,  where  there  are  men  of  all  essential  trades 
and  professions,  and  no  communication  is  held  with 


344  SINCE    THE    IVAI^. 

the  outer  world  if  it  can  be  prevented.  In  con- 
siderable districts,  particularly  among  the  Germans 
and  Welsh,  the  English  language  is  seldom  spoken, 
and  public  as  well  as  parochial  schools  are  con- 
ducted in  the  foreign  tongue.  But  as  a  rule,  the  for- 
eign-born people  of  Wisconsin  are  quick  to  adopt 
American  methods  and  English  speech,  and  enter 
with  zest  into  the  privileges  and  duties  of  citizen- 
ship ;  while  no  matter  how  zealously  the  elders  may 
endeavor  to  perpetuate  the  foreign  ideas  which 
they  have  brought  with  them,  the  younger  genera- 
tion cannot  long  be  held  in  leash,  complaint  being- 
universal  that  the  teachings  of  the  fathers  in  these 
matters  appear  to  have  but  little  effect  upon  the 
youth.  The  process  of  assimilation  is  as  a  whole 
reasonably  rapid.  There  are  those  who  fear  that 
Wisconsin  is  becoming  denationalized  because  of 
her  large  and  conservative  foreign  population,  but 
a  careful  study  of  the  situation  will  not,  I  think, 
warrant  any  observer  in  such  a  conclusion.  New 
customs,  new  manners  and  new  blood  are  being 
introduced  by  these  colonists  from  across  seas,  but 
they  are  in  most  cases  worthy  of  adoption  and 
absorption.  We  are  slowl)'  building  up  in  America 
a  coinjjositf  iialiondlity  that  is  neither  English  nor 
contini;ntal,  Ijut  narlakes  of  all  — it  is  to  be  hoped 
the  l)cst  of  all. 

It    is    inlcrcstinL!;    to    note    the    localities    where 


Armory. 


SC_-   -51,-  '■•'K' 


^"S^X'-P 


t'ICTUKESQUE   MILWAUKEE, 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  345 

these  foreign  groups    have    planted  themselves  in 
Wisconsin. 

The  Germans  number  seventy-five  per  cent,  of 
the  population  of  Taylor  County,  sixty-five  per  cent, 
of  Dodge,  and  fifty-five  per  cent,  of  Buffalo.  They 
are  also  found  in  especially  large  groups  in  Mil- 
waukee, Ozaukee,  Washington,  Sheboygan,  Mani- 
towoc, Jefferson,  Outagamie,  Fond  du  Lac,  Sauk, 
Waupaca,  Dane,  Marathon,  Grant,  Waushara, 
Green  Lake,  Langlade  and  Clark  counties.  There 
are  Germans  in  every  county  of  the  State,  and 
numerous  isolated  German  settlements,  but  in  the 
counties  named  these  people  are  particularly  nu- 
merous. Sometimes  the  groups  are  of  special  in- 
terest because  the  people  came  for  the  most  part 
from  a  particular  district  in  the  Fatherland.  For 
instance,  Lomira,  in  Dodge  County,  was  settled  al- 
most entirely  by  Prussians  from  Brandenburg,  who 
belonged  to  the  EvanQ:elical  Association.  The 
neio-hborino:  towns  of  Herman  and  Theresa,  also  in 
Dodge  County,  were  settled  principally  by  natives 
of  Pomerania.  In  Calumet  County,  there  are 
Oldenburg,  Luxemburg  and  New  Holstein  settle- 
ments. St.  Kilian,  in  Washington  County,  is  set- 
tled by  people  from  Northern  Bohemia,  just  over 
the  German  border.  The  town  of  Belgium,  Ozau- 
kee County,  is  populated  almost  exclusively  by 
Luxemburgers,    while     Oldenburgers    occupy    the 


346  SINCE    THE    WAR. 

German  settlement  at  Cedarburg.  Three  fourths 
of  the  population  of  Farmington,  Washington 
County,  are  from  Saxony.  In  the  same  county, 
Jackson  is  chiefly  settled  by  Pomeranians,  while 
one  half  of  the  population  of  Kewaskum  are  from 
the  same  German  province.  In  Dane  County,  there 
are  several  interesting  groups  of  German  Catholics : 
the  town  of  Roxbury  is  nine  tenths  German,  the 
people  coming  mostly  from  Rhenish  Prussia  and 
Bavaria ;  Germans  predominate  in  Cross  Plains, 
the  rest  of  the  population  being  Irish ;  the  Ger- 
man families  of  Middleton  came  from  Koln,  Rhen- 
ish Prussia,  and  so  did  those  of  Berry,  a  town 
almost  solidly  German.  Austrians  are  numerous 
in  Kewaunee  County. 

The  Polanders  are  wide-spread.  In  the  cities 
of  Milwaukee  and  Manitowoc,  there  are  large 
masses  of  them.  In  the  city  and  neighborhood  of 
Beaver  Dam,  Dodge  County,  there  are  nine  hun- 
dred Poles,  mostly  from  Posen,  Germany.  In  Ber- 
lin and  its  neighborhood  are  one  thousand,  two 
hundred  from  Danzig,  and  emigration  from  thence 
is  still  in  active  progress.  There  are  two  Polish 
churches  in  Berlin,  and  one  Polish  school  in  which 
that  language  is  taught.  Other  solid  Polish  groups 
are  found  in  the  t()wnshi])s  of  Ik'rlin,  Seneca  and 
I'rinccton.  Warren  township,  in  Waushara  County, 
has  a  considerable  colony  of   Poles,  and  others  can 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  347 

be  found  in  Trempealeau,  Door,  Kewaunee,  Por- 
tage, Marathon,  Langlade  and  Buffalo  counties. 

Bohemians  are  settled  for  the  most  part  in  the 
counties  of  Kewaunee  (where  they  form  three  sev- 
enths of  the  entire  population),  Marathon,  Adams, 
Crawford,  Grant  (towns  of  Muscoda  and  Castle 
Rock),  Columbia  (Lodi),  Trempealeau,  Langlade 
and  Washington  (part  of  Wayne). 

We  find  Belgians  closely  massed  in  the  towns  of 
Gardiner,  Union  and  Brussels,  in  Door  County; 
Red  River  and  a  large  part  of  Lincoln,  in  Kewau- 
nee County,  and  in  Brown  County. 

The  Dutch  have  particularly  strong  settlements 
in  the  Northeastern  portion  of  the  State,  in  the 
city  of  Milwaukee  and  in  La  Crosse  County.  The 
first  colony  was  settled  in  Hollandtown,  Sheboygan 
County,  where  natives  of  Holland  still  own  one 
fourth  of  the  township.  They  own  one  half  of  Bar- 
ton, in  Washington  County.  Alto,  Fond  du  Lac 
County,  is  essentially  a  Dutch  town.  A  consider- 
able stronghold  is  the  town  of  Kaukauna,  Outa- 
gamie County,  and  the  Dutch  own  much  of  Depere 
and  Belleville,  Brown  County.  The  city  of  Mil- 
waukee had,  as  early  as  1849,  a  Dutch  population 
of  more  than  eight  hundred,  which  has  since  greatly 
increased.  There  is  a  large  settlement  of  Frisians 
in  Holland  township.  La  Crosse  County,  their  vil- 
lage being  known  as  New  Amsterdam. 


348  SINCE    THE    WAIi. 

The  Scandinavians  (Norwegians,  Swedes,  Danes 
and  Icelanders)  of  Wisconsin,  are  divided  into  na- 
tional groups.  The  Norwegians  are  strongest  in 
Dane  County,  where  there  are  probably  not  less 
than  fourteen  thousand  who  were  either  born  in 
Norway  or  whose  parents  were.  Other  counties 
having  large  numbers,  are  Pierce,  St.  Croix,  Eau 
Claire,  Waushara,  W^aupaca,  Washburn,  Winne- 
bago, Portage,  Buffalo,  Trempealeau,  Barron,  Door, 
Bayfield,  Florence,  Lincoln,  Rock,  Racine,  Mil- 
waukee, Grant  and  Oneida.  Swedes  predominate 
in  Trenton,  Isabel  and  Maiden  Rock,  in  Pierce 
County;  and  are  strong  in  portions  of  Bayfield, 
Douglas,  Price,  Taylor,  Door,  Jackson  and  Por- 
taee  counties.  Danes  are  found  in  considerable 
groups  in  Adams,  Milwaukee,  Racine  and  Wau- 
shara counties.  Icelanders  practically  monopolize 
Washington  Island  (Door  County),  in  the  waters  of 
Green  Bay.  Finlanders  are  quite  strongly  grouped 
in  Douglas  County. 

There  are  between  five  and  six  thousand  Swiss 
massed  in  exceptionally  prosperous  colonies  in  New 
Glarus,  Washington,  Exeter,  Mt.  Pleasant,  York  and 
neighboring  townships  in  Green  County.  Others 
may  be  found  in  the  counties  of  Buffalo,  Pierce 
(Union),  Winnebago  (Black  Wolf),  and  Fond  du 
Lac  (Ashford). 

Italian   groups  are   noted  in  Vernon,  Washburn 


SINCE    THE    IVAE.  349 

and  Florence  counties.  In  Vernon,  they  hold  one 
half  of  Genoa  township. 

Russians,  both  Greek-church  adherents  and  Jews, 
are  chiefly  found  in  the  city  of  Milwaukee.  Of  the 
Greek-church  Russians,  there  are  two  thousand  in 
number,  living  on  one  street  in  a  densely-settled 
neighborhood,  and  said  to  be  mainly  engaged  in 
peddling  small  wares.  The  Russian  Jews  are  scat- 
tered throughout  the  city ;  they  observe  their  old 
social  customs  with  religious  tenacity,  but  are 
allowing  their  children  to  become  Americanized. 

The  principal  French-Canadian  settlements  are 
in  Bayfield,  Crawford,  Lincoln,  St.  Croix  and  Tay- 
lor Counties,  not  counting  the  French  Creoles  at 
Green  Bay,  Kaukauna  and  Prairie  du  Chien. 

Large  English  settlements  —  several  of  them  the 
result  of  the  early  immigration  of  Cornish  miners 
into  the  lead  regions  of  Southwestern  Wisconsin 
—  can  be  found  in  Iowa,  Grant,  Lafayette,  Co- 
lumbia, Juneau  and   Dane  counties. 

The  Scotch  we  find  in  considerable  numbers  in 
Columbia,  Buffalo,  Green  Lake,  Kenosha,  Mara- 
thon and  Trempealeau  counties. 

The  Welsh  are  planted  upon  Wisconsin  soil  in 
large  groups.  In  Waushara  County,  the  town  of 
Springwater,  one  half  of  the  towm  of  Rose  and 
one  half  of  Aurora  are  occupied  by  natives  of 
Wales  and  their  immediate  descendants.     Spring 


350  SINCE    THE    IVAA. 

Green,  in  Sauk  County,  has  a  large  colony  of  them. 
The  whole  of  Nekimi  and  the  greater  part  of 
Utica,  in  Winnebago  County,  are  settled  by  this 
people  ;  so  are  Caledonia  and  other  townships  in 
Columbia  County,  and  the  town  of  Calamus  in 
Dodge.  Monroe  County  has  many  solid  Welsh 
neighborhoods,  and  other  compact  groups  are 
in   the  third  and  sixth   wards  of  Racine. 

Irish  groups  are  found  in  Bear  Creek,  Winfield 
and  Dellona,  in  Sauk  County;  Osceola,  Eden  and 
Byron,  in  Fond  du  Lac  County;  Benton,  Darling- 
ton, Gratiot,  Kendall,  Seymour,  Shullsburg  and 
Willow  Spring,  in  Lafayette  County;  Lebanon,  in 
Waupaca  County;  Erin,  in  Washington  County; 
El  Paso,  in  Pierce  County;  and  Emmet,  Shields 
and  Portland,  in  Dodge  County.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  the  Germans,  who  are  gaining  steadily 
all  along  the  line,  have  frequently  displaced  large 
bodies  of  Irish  settlers  in  the  southeastern  portions 
of  the  State. 

The  chief  city  of  Wisconsin  is  Milwaukee,  with 
a  population  of  about  two  hundred  and  three 
thousand,  which  is  increasing  rapidly.  It  com- 
mands an  extensive  lake  commerce,  is  an  impor- 
tant railway  center,  and  has  large  industries,  par- 
ticularly breweries,  iron  works,  shoe  factories  and 
tanneries.  Its  schf)()l  system  is  based  upon  the 
best   modern    methods,    liu'    i)ublic    buildings    and 


SIJVCE    'J HE    irAA\  35! 

many  of  the  business  structures  are  superb ;  the 
Layton  Art  Gallery  contains  one  of  the  choicest 
collections  of  paintings  to  be  found  west  of  the 
Alleghanies ;  music  and  literature  are  carefully 
fostered ;  its  people  are  noted  for  public  spirit, 
vigor  and  push  in  their  various  enterprises  ;  there 
are  numerous  fine  parks  and  noble  drives,  and  the 
city  enjoys  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most 
healthful  and  beautiful  residence  towns  in  America. 

Oshkosh  and  La  Crosse,  the  former  with  twenty- 
two  thousand  people,  and  the  latter  with  twenty- 
five,  have  for  many  years  been  in  close  rivalry. 
Both  are  as  yet  essentially  lumber  towns,  but  both 
are  gradually  emerging  from  that  stage,  now  that 
lumbering  is  on  the  decline,  and  are  becoming  mis- 
cellaneous manufacturing  centers.  Both  were  origi- 
nally famous  rendezvous  grounds  for  aborigines, 
and  later  were  French  fur-trading  points,  finally 
developing  into  thrifty  American  settlements. 

Eau  Claire,  with  twenty-four  thousand,  is  almost 
entirely  dependent  upon  the  lumbering  industry  for 
support.  Racine,  having  a  population  of  twenty- 
one  thousand,  has  varied  manufacturing  interests, 
chiefly  in  iron,  lumber  and  agricultural  machinery, 
and  is  enjoying  a  prosperous  growth,  being  practi- 
cally a  factory  suburb  of  Chicago.  Fond  du  Lac 
has  twelve  thousand  people  within  its  limits.  It 
is  one  of  the  oldest  settlements  in  the  State,  and 


352  SINCE   THE    WAR. 

attained  its  best  Qrrowth  as  a  lumber-manufacturinor 
and  iron-smelting  town.  After  a  period  of  decad- 
ence, it  is  now  upon  the  upward  path,  with  mis- 
cellaneous manufactures  as  a  backing,  in  which 
sash  and  door  mills,  wagon  shops,  iron-working 
and  the  making  of  agricultural  machinery  chiefly 
figure. 

Madison,  with  thirteen  thousand  inhabitants,  is 
the  State  capital  and  is  a  conservative  town,  hav- 
ing a  steady  but  not  rapid  growth.  The  State 
university  is  located  here,  and  this  and  various 
other  schools,  public  and  private,  attract  a  con- 
siderable number  of  teachers  and  pupils.  There 
are  large  libraries  in  the  town,  which  draw  special 
students  from  many  quarters.  The  presence  of 
the  State  government  and  the  several  State  and 
United  States  courts,  has  also  a  bearing  upon  the 
character  of  the  population.  Madison  is  the 
political,  educational  and  literary  center  of  the 
Commonwealth,  is  an  important  railway  center 
and  contains  a  few  industrial  ])lants,  chiefly  in  the 
line  of  agricultural  machinery  and  the  printing  of 
books  for  publishers  in  several  of  the  large  West- 
ern cities.  Situated  in  the  heart  of  the  famous 
I'Our  Lake  cr)untry,  summer  tourists  gather  here 
in  great  numbers.  Many  ]:)eople  of  assured  but 
moderate  incomes  permanently  locate  in  Madison 
because  of  its  educational  advantages,  the   preva- 


SINCE    7 HE    IVAR.  353 

lent  high  social  and  literary  tone,  and  the  beauty 
of  the  city  and  its  surroundings. 

Sheboygan,  with  seventeen  thousand  people,  is 
noted  for  its  manufacture  of  fine  dairy  products  and 
various  articles  of  wooden  ware,  particularly  chairs. 

Janesville  is  a  fast-growing  city,  with  cotton, 
woolen  and  other  mills,  and  a  prosperous  country 
trade. 

Appleton  houses  thirteen  thousand  people,  and 
is  a  bright,  flourishing  manufacturing  community. 
Along  its  water-powers  are  planted  pulp,  paper 
and  grist  mills,  while  iron  foundries  and  miscella- 
neous factories  are  numerous.  It  is  the  seat  of 
Lawrence  University,  is  a  beautiful  residence  place, 
and  society  there  takes  unto  itself  much  of  the 
spirit  of  the  traditional  college  town. 

Beloit  is  another  pretty  college  town,  and  a  com- 
munity of  delightful  homes.  Kenosha,  Sheboygan 
and  Manitow^oc  are  towns  along  Lake  Michigan, 
which  have  lumbering,  fishing  and  other  interests, 
together  with  a  healthy  lake  commerce.  Neenah 
is  known  the  country  over,  for  her  great  flouring 
mills  and  charming  summer  resorts.  Waukesha, 
with  her  world-famous  mineral  springs ;  Oconomo- 
woc,  Pewaukee  and  Geneva,  with  their  beautiful 
lakes ;  and  Sparta,  deep  set  in  the  western  hills, 
with  her  fountains  of  magnetic  water,  attract  tour- 
ists and  invalids  from  all  portions  of  the  land. 


354  SINCE    THE    WAR. 

Ashland,  the  most  popular  of  all  Lake  Superior 
resorts,  is  quite  as  noted  within  the  State  for  her 
lumber  mills,  and  as  being  the  shipping  point  for 
the  Gogebic  iron  mines.  Merrill,  Wausau,  Stevens 
Point,  Chippewa  Falls  and  Hudson  are  typical 
lumber  towns,  each  conscious  of  a  brilliant  future 
and  alive  with  the  bustle  of  the  world.  The  Su- 
periors, particularly  West  Superior,  which  is  just 
at  present  Wisconsin's  pet  "  boom  town,"  are  com- 
ing to  the  front  with  seven-league  boots  and  prom- 
ise to  soon  outrival  Duluth.  Everywhere  along 
the  line  of  Badger  cities,  there  is  abundant  enter- 
prise and  commendable  progress. 

Few  States  in  the  Union  contain  as  many  In- 
dians as  Wisconsin.  In  1889  there  were  9,243, 
not  counting  the  civilized  Brothertowns  and  Stock- 
bridges  who  own  and  work  their  own  farms  in 
Calumet  County,  and  have  been  admitted  to  full 
citizenship.  In  the  Green  Bay  agency,  whose  res- 
ervations are  at  Keshena  and  Duck  Creek,  are  the 
Oneidas  (1,713)  and  the  Stockbridges  (138),  who 
are  remnants  of  the  New  York  Indians  who  immi- 
grated to  Wisconsin  in  the  time  of  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams; and  the  Menomonees  (1,469),  who  are  de- 
scendants of  the  "  Follcs  Avoines  "  who  escorted 
Nicolet  to  Green  Bay,  who  listened  to  the  preach- 
ing of  Allouez  at  Depere,  helped  Langlade  ensnare 
the  soldiers  of  Braddock,  rallied  under  the  banner 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  355 

of  France  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  and  followed 
Hamilton  to  attack  George  Rogers  Clark  at  Vin- 
cennes  —  the  tribe  whose  chieftains  were  name- 
o:ivers  to  the  cities  of  Oshkosh  and  Tomah. 

The  La  Pointe  agency  has  reservations  at  Lac 
du  Flambeau,  Lac  Court  d'Oreilles,  Bad  River  and 
Red  Cliff,  in  which  there  are  gathered  nearly  five 
thousand  Chippewas,  the  mightiest  hunters  of  early 
Wisconsin,  and  the  best-formed  and  most  intelli- 
gent of  the  lot  —  offspring  of  the  men  whom  Rad- 
isson  and  Groseilliers,  and  Marquette  and  Allouez 
found  at  La  Pointe  in  the  seventeenth  century ; 
and  a  small  band  of  Pottawatomies,  whose  fathers 
once  held  sway  over  Southeastern  Wisconsin  and 
were  the  tribesmen  of  Shaubena. 

Another  band  of  Pottawatomies,  three  hundred 
in  number,  living  along  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Wisconsin  River,  are  homesteaders,  not  under 
agency  rule.  The  Winnebagoes,  poorest,  meanest 
and  most  ill-visaged  of  Wisconsin  Indians,  are  also 
homesteaders,  living  chiefly  upon  the  sandy  pine 
barrens  in  Adams,  Jackson  and  Waushara  counties. 

Two  notable  attempts  have  been  made  by  the 
United  States  Government  to  remove  the  Win- 
nebagoes from  the  State.  In  1848,  they  were 
taken  at  considerable  expense  to  a  reservation  at 
Long  Prairie,  Minn.,  but  most  of  them  stole  away 
to    their    haunts  in    Wisconsin  before    the    return 


356  SINCE    THE    WAR. 

of  the  commissioners  who  had  accompanied  them 
thither.  The  small  proportion  who  remained  at 
Long  Prairie  were  afterwards  moved  to  Mankato, 
Minn. ;  thence  to  the  Crow  and  Creek  reservations, 
up  the  Missouri  River,  and  finally  were  floated 
down  the  Missouri  to  Dakota  County,  Neb.,  their 
present  reservation. 

In  the  winter  of  1873,  there  was  another  attempt 
to  move  the  Winnebagoes  from  Wisconsin.  Run- 
ners were  sent  out  through  the  woods  to  give 
the  Indians  notice  to  rendezvous  at  Sparta,  to  be 
shipped  to  Nebraska.  But  preferring  their  native 
woods  and  streams,  and  their  free-and-easy  gypsy 
life,  to  the  sun-scorched  reservation  and  the  trials 
and  turmoils  of  life  in  an  agency,  they  declined 
to  come  in.  Militar)^  assistance  was  then  sum- 
moned by  the  removal  agent,  and  those  of  the 
Winneba2:oes  who  did  not  succeed  in  hidino-  were 
soon  gathered  at  Sparta,  but  not  without  many  in- 
stances of  rough  treatment  on  the  part  of  some  of 
the  captors,  and  undue  exposure  to  the  weather  of 
children,  and  old  people  who  were  unable  to  walk 
through  the  deep  snows  and  had  to  be  carried  on 
sleds.  .Some  of  the  Indians  employed  an  attorney 
who  vainly  sought  to  {vvxi  them  on  writs  of  habeas 
corpus,  and  much  i^opular  symj)athy  for  the  red 
men  was  created. 

Several    lumdrcd     Indians   were    successfully    re- 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  357 

/ 
moved,  but  as  rtutny  more  evaded  pursuit  and  re- 
mained. Since  that,  there  has  been  no  serious 
effort  to  remove  them;  and  in  1883  the  Winne- 
bacjoes  remainino"  in  the  State  were  oblioed  to  take 
up  homesteads,  and  now  receive  a  government 
annuity  of  about  fifteen  dollars  per  liead.  There 
are  some  fifteen  hundred  of  them  still  in  the  State, 
which  is  about  the  number  now  on  the  Nebraska 
reservation. 

The  reservation  Indians  in  Wisconsin  manasfe 
to  pick  up  a  living  from  farming,  milling,  the  sale 
of  their  standing  timber  to  lumbermen,  and  the 
receipt  of  small  government  annuities.  The  wan- 
derinor  Winnebaooes  raise  enousfh  corn  for  their 
own  use  ;  fish  and  hunt  throughout  Southern  Wis- 
consin, in  the  winter  and  spring;  receive  their  an- 
nuities in  the  fall ;  gather  blueberries  upon  the 
wild  lands  of  Central  Wisconsin  and  sell  them  to 
packers  at  Black  River  Falls,  Tom  ah  and  other 
stations,  where  they  are  crated  and  shipped  to 
Chicago  in  large  quantities;  and  pick  cranberries 
on  hire,  for  the  owners  of  great  cultivated  marshes 
in  the  Black  River  and  neighboring  valleys.  They 
are  all  of  them  —  Menomonees,  New  York  Indians, 
Chippewas,  Pottawatomies  and  Winnebagoes  alike 
—  a  simple-minded,  improvident  people  who  live 
from  hand  to  mouth,  either  feasting  or  starvinij,  vet 
managing  to  hold   their  own   as  to  population,  and 


^8  SINCE    THE    WAR. 


oD 


apparently  making  no  progress  toward  the  stage  of 
civilization. 

Although  most  of  them  are  tinged  with  white 
blood,  that  condition  is  largely  a  relic  of  the  early 
fur-trading  days,  when  the  woods  were  filled  with 
Frenchmen  who  were  in  hail-fellowship  with  the 
red  barbarians.  Under  the  American  regime^  in- 
termarriages are  few,  not  being  countenanced  by 
either  race ;  so  that  in  the  formation  of  our  com- 
posite nationality  —  for  the  study  of  which  Wiscon- 
sin is  so  interesting  a  field  —  the  Indian  appears  to 
play  no  part. 

The  provisions  made  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  Commonwealth  are  liberal,  $3,803,- 
487  being  expended  for  public  educational  pur- 
poses in  1889.  The  national  government  granted 
the  State,  as  a  school  fund,  section  sixteen  in  each 
township,  and  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land, 
besides  five  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
public  lands  within  the  State.  This,  with  some 
other  items,  goes  to  make  up  the  general  school 
fund.  The  income  from  this  is  supplemented  by 
a  State  tax  of  one  mill  on  the  dollar.  The  com- 
bined amount,  aggregating  $770,913.52  in  1889,  is 
apportioned  each  year  among  the  towns,  villages 
and  cities  in  ]:)rojO()rtion  to  the  number  of  children, 
over  four  years  and  under  twenty,  residing  in  dis- 
tricts   which    maintain     schools    for    six    or    more 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  359 

months,  as  required  by  law.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  State  grants  fifty  thousand  dollars  yearly,  in 
aid  of  free  high  schools. 

Each  town,  village  and  city  must  raise  a  tax  for 
its  local  schools,  at  least  equal  to  the  amount  re- 
ceived from  the  State  the  preceding  year.  In  1889, 
there  were  567,683  persons  of  school  age,  of  whom 
about  sixty  per  cent,  were  enrolled  in  the  public 
schools.  But  the  fact  should  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration that  in  Wisconsin  the  school  age  is  far- 
reaching.  Practically  the  majority  of  children  go 
to  school  when  between  seven  and  fourteen  years, 
which  are  the  limits  of  compulsory  attendance. 
Of  the  children  between  these  ages,  fully  eighty 
per  cent,  are  enrolled  in  the  public  schools,  and  the 
greater  portion  of  the  balance  may  be  found  in  the 
parochial  or  private  schools. 

The  district,  ward,  high  and  normal  schools  are 
under  the  charge  of  the  State,  the  system  of  popu- 
lar education  being  crowned  by  the  State  Univer- 
sity at  Madison.  This*  institution  was  organized 
at  the  time  Wisconsin  entered  the  Union,  in  1848. 
While  derivino-  some  aid  from  the  2:eneral  o-overn- 
ment  —  in  consideration  of  its  training  its  pupils 
in  military  tactics  and  conducting  an  agricultural 
experiment  station  —  the  chief  income  of  the  Uni- 
versity is  now  derived  from  a  State  tax  of  one 
eighth  of  a  mill  on  the  dollar. 


360  SINCE    THE    WAR. 


The  college  year  of  1S90-91,  showed  an  attend- 
ance of  about  eight  hundred  pupils  in  all  of  the 
departments,  which  include  a  college  of  law,  schools 
of  pharmacy  and  mining,  railroad  and  electrical 
ensineerins:,  and  short  and  loner  courses  in  as'ricul- 
ture,  in  addition  to  the  usual  academic  and  scien- 
tific courses.  The  grounds  of  the  University  are 
upon  a  rolling  ridge  of  land  along  the  shores  of 
Lake  Mendota,  and  are  not  excelled  in  natural 
beauty  by  those  of  any  college  in  America. 

The  institution  passed  through  some  critical 
periods,  in  its  earlier  years,  before  the  people  of  the 
State  became  educated  to  an  appreciation  of  its 
importance ;  but  it  has  now  passed  that  stage,  and 
to-day  is  recognized  by  every  intelligent  citizen  as 
worthv  of  the  liberal  support  which  is  now  awarded 
it.  The  buildings  and  equipments  are  among  the 
best  in  the  Mississippi  basin,  and  the  quality  of 
the  work  performed  is  unexcelled  among  the  State 
universities  of  the  country.  The  regents  of  the 
University  have  under  then-  charge  two  important 
branches  of  work  which  arc  popular  extensions  of 
the  University  system;  a  teachers'  institute  lecture- 
shi]),  and  farmers'  institutes. 

The  system  of  fainiers'  institutes  is  unique  in 
Wisconsin.  'I'he  regents,  represented  1))'  an  expert 
superintendent,  hoM  institutes  at  N'arious  places 
tbrou'-liout  the   State  —  about    fiftN'in    number,  be- 


SINCE    THK    WAR.  36 1 


tween  the  months  of  November  and  April  inclu- 
sive—  at  which  the  farmers  who  are  in  attendance 
are  instructed  in  the  various  branches  of  aj^ricult- 
ure,  by  means  of  lectures,  discussions  and  exhibi- 
tions of  appliances  and  methods. 

The  sum  of  twelve  thousand  dollars  per  year  is 
appropriated  b)'  the  legislature  for  this  purpose. 
Some  of  the  best  experts  in  the  country  are  em- 
ployed as  lecturers  and  leaders  in  discussion,  and 
the  attendance  is  invariably  large  and  enthusiastic. 
A  traveling  agricultural  college,  brought  to  the 
homes  of  the  people,  it  has  not  only  had  the  effect 
to  create  great  popular  interest  in  the  rural  com- 
munities, to  develop  local  talent,  and  to  lead  to  the 
introduction  of  improved  systems  of  farming,  but 
there  is  already  noticeable,  as  a  direct  outgrowth 
of  this  important  educational  awakening,  a  re- 
newed concern  in  the  proper  conduct  of  the  district 
schools,  and  an  enlarged  conception  of  the  useful- 
ness of  the  State  University.  The  farmers'  insti- 
tutes are  causing  the  farmers  to  think,  and  think 
rightly.  The  intellectual  nnd  material  benefits  al- 
ready noticeable,  direct  and  indirect,  must,  under 
a  continuance  of  the  present  wise  management,  in- 
crease as  the  years  go  on. 

The  principal  Protestant  denominational  col- 
leges in  Wisconsin  are  at  Beloit  (Congregational, 
established  in    1846),  Appleton  (Lawrence   Univer- 


3 


62  SINCE    THE    WAJ?. 


sity,  Methodist,  1847),  Ripon  (Congregational, 
1S53),  Racine  (Protestant  Episcopal,  1852),  Milton 
(Seventh-Day  Baptist,  1844),  Fox  Lake  (Downer 
Female  College,  Congregational  and  Presbyterian, 
1853),  Watertown  (Northwestern  University,  Lu- 
theran, 1865)  and  Waukesha  (Carroll  College,  Pres- 
byterian, 1846).  The  Milwaukee  College  (1848)  is 
unsectarian,  and  for  women  only.  The  Catholics 
support  Pio  Nono  (1871)  at  St.  Francis;  Marquette 
(Jesuit,  1864)  at  Milwaukee,  and  Saint  Clara  (1848) 
at  Sinsinawa  Mound,  besides  numerous  academies. 
Among- Wisconsin's  notable  institutions,  is  the 
State  Historical  Society.  Born  in  1849,  and  pass- 
ing through  many  an  early  crisis,  it  stands  to-day 
without  a  rival  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  as  an 
agency  for  the  gathering  and  preservation  of  mate- 
rials for  Western  history.  It  has  —  largely  through 
the  efforts  of  Lyman  C.  Draper,  who  was  secre- 
tary for  thirty-two  years  —  accumulated  a  reference 
library  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand 
volumes,  the  best  and  largest  scholars'  library  in 
the  Mississi])pi  basin  ;  and  in  its  leading  specialty, 
Americana,  is  only  excelled  by  the  library  of  Har- 
vard College  and  the  New  York  State  library  at 
Albany.  Its  librar)-,  museum,  portrait  gallery,  and 
offices  oc(  i!])y  tliree  lloors  of  the  large  south  wing 
of  the  State  I  louse,  at  Madison,  and  it  is  estimated 
that     foity    thousand    persons    visit     the    museuni 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  363 

annually.  The  Society  is  the  chartered  trustee  of 
the  Commonwealth,  and  is  in  correspondence  with 
the  leading  learned  institutions  of  America  and 
Europe.  The  library  is  a  favorite  haunt  for  the 
students  of  the  State  University,  and  is  resorted 
to  by  literary  workers  from  all  parts  of  the  West. 
The  University  itself  has  a  general  library  of  six- 
teen thousand  volumes  ;  and  the  State  Law  Library 
of  twenty  thousand  volumes,  also  in  the  Capitol,  and 
open  to  the  students  of  the  University  law  school, 
is  one  of  the  largest  of  its  class  in  the  West. 

Wisconsin's  State  charitable,  reformatory  and 
penal  institutions,  under  the  care  of  the  State  Board 
of  Supervision,  consist  of  two  insane  hospitals  (near 
Madison  and  Oshkosh)  having  a  joint  population, 
the  first  of  August,  1890,  of  one  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  ;  the  School  for  the  Deaf, 
at  Delavan,  with  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  in- 
mates; the  School  for  the  Blind,  at  Janesville, 
eighty-one;  the  Lidustrial  School  for  Boys,  at  \\\au- 
kesha,  four  hundred  and  twenty-three;  the  State 
Prison,  at  Waupun,  five  hundred  and  twenty-four, 
and  the  State  Public  School,  at  Sparta,  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-seven.  The  Industrial  School  for 
Girls,  at  Milwaukee,  with  two  hundred  inmates, 
and  the  Milwaukee  Hospital  for  the  Lisane,  with 
two  hundred  and  forty-nine,  are  also  assisted  by 
the   State.      The   State   Public   School   is   in    iniita- 


364  SINCE    THE    WAR. 

tion  of  the  Michigan  institution  bearing  the  same 
name.  It  receives  dependent  children  who  would 
otherwise  generally  go  to  the  poor-houses.  These 
children  are  placed  for  rearing,  as  soon  as  possible, 
in  private  families  where  they  are  looked  after  by  a 
State  agent  appointed  for  the  purpose.  In  Wis- 
consin, no  children  are  allowed  to  be  brought  up 
in  poor-houses. 

The  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Reform  has 
visitorial  powers  over  all  institutions — private  or 
public,  State,  county  or  municipal  —  where  the 
dependent  or  criminal  classes  are  cared  for  or  con- 
fined. The  Board  has  especial  charge  of  a  unique 
system  of  open-door  county  asylums  for  chronic 
insane,  inaugurated  in  1881.  There  are  now 
twenty  of  these  institutions,  and  the  number  is 
gradually  increasing;  the  aggregate  number  of  in- 
mates on  the  first  day  of  August,  1890,  was  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  nine.  None  of  them 
has  capacity  for  over  one  hundred,  an  essential 
feature  of  the  plan  being,  small  asylums  on  large 
farms,  thus  providing  opportunity  for  liberty  and 
occupation.  Much  more  than  three  fourths  of  the 
inmates  have  some  regular  daily  laljor,  and  over 
two  fifths  are  emi)l()ycd  the  entire  day.  i3y  thus 
keeping  the  minds  of  the  insane  occupied  with 
their  work,  the  amount  of  mechanical  restraint  and 
seclusion  combined  is   less  than   one  tenth   of  one 


S/ACE    THE    WAK.  365 

per  cent.;  in  other  words,  about  one  inmate  in  a 
thousand  is  under  restraint  each  day,  in  the  W'is- 
consin  county  asylums.  Idie  doors  of  these  asy- 
lums stand  open  all  day  long,  and  every  inmate 
has  liberty  to  go  in  and  out  at  pleasure,  if  remain- 
ing in  the  vicinity  of  the  buildings,  while  fully  one 
half  are  on  parole  to  go  anywhere,  without  an  at- 
tendant. The  cost  of  maintenance  under  this  hu- 
mane system  is  greatly  reduced  by  the  products  of 
the  farm  raised  by  the  aid  of  insane  labor  ;  while, 
such  are  the  beneficent  mental  and  physical  effects 
of  liberty  and  occupation,  that  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  alleged  chronic  insane  absolutely  recover 
and  the  condition  of  all  is  greatly  improyed.  The 
State  Board  of  Charities  and  Reform  exercises 
close  and  active  supervision  over  these  county  in- 
stitutions ;  the  buildings  must  be  constructed  on 
plans  approved  by  the  Board,  and  unless  an  asylum 
has  the  Board's  certificate  that  it  has  been  properly 
managed  during  the  year,  it  cannot  draw  the  State 
aid  so  essential  to  its  existence.  The  Board  has 
power  to  transfer  to  the  county  asylums  chronic 
insane  patients  from  the  State  hospitals  and  other 
places  ;  and  it  has  exercised  its  authority  to  thus 
transfer  a  large  number  from  jails  and  poor-houses, 
and  also  from  private  families  where  they  were  im- 
properly treated.  To-day,  there  are  only  about 
twenty  insane   persons   in    the    poor-houses    of   the 


366  SIA'CE    THE    WAR. 

State,  and  none  in  the  jails.  This  Wisconsin 
method  of  caring  for  the  chronic  insane,  gave  rise 
when  first  introduced  to  sharp  criticism  from  spe- 
cialists in  other  States;  but  eight  years  of  experi- 
ence has  convinced  the  critics  that  it  has  accom- 
plished all  that  was  claimed  for  it.  While  several 
county  asylums  have  been  inaugurated  in  other 
States,  nowhere  else  is  there  exercised  that  efficient 
State  control  which  is  the  life  of  the  Wisconsin 
method.  Wisconsin  provides  a  comfortable  home 
for  every  insane  person  within  her  borders,  and 
has  room  to  spare  in  her  institutions  ;  I  am  im- 
formed  by  those  who  should  know,  that  this  can  be 
truthfullv  said  of  no  other  State  in  the  Union. 

The  Wisconsin  Veterans'  Home,  at  Waupaca,  is 
another  institution  which  has  some  unique  features. 
It  is  managed  by  the  Wisconsin  department  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Repuljlic,  but  is  liberally  aided 
by  the  State.  Conducted  on  the  cottage  plan,  its 
present  ca])acity  is  for  two  hundred  inmates.  Not 
only  arc  indigent  loyal  veterans  of  the  War  of 
Secession  cared  for,  hui  the  wives  and  widows  of 
soldiers  are  also  received,  and  to  each  couple  is 
assigned  a  neat  two-room  cottage.  The  location 
of  the   I  lomc  is  heaUhful  and  bcauliful. 

There  are  also  in  Wisconsin  tlu'  usual  number 
of  orphan  asylmns,  hospitals,  homes  for  the  aged 
and    olh(  T    ])i-ivalc    benevohiit    institutions,    which 


SINCE    THE    WAR.  367 

are  for  the  most  part  under  ecclesiastical  control ; 
all,  however,  are  regularly  inspected  and  reported 
upon  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Reform. 

The  historic  Northwest  will  ere  Ions:  be  recoe- 
nized  as  the  chief  seat  of  political  interest  in  the 
American  Union.  It  is  here  that  wealth  and  politi- 
cal power  are  fast  centering;  here  that  the  largest 
measure  of  progress  and  prosperity  is  to  be  found  ; 
here  that  the  strensfth  of  the  nation  is  beino-  gren- 
erated;  here  that  the  most  intricate  problems  of 
modern  statesmanship  are  to  be  solved.  In  this 
approaching  ascendancy  of  the  Northwest,  W'is- 
consin  may  be  relied  upon  to  play  an  important 
part.  With  a  romantic  and  inspiring  history, 
reachino;  throuo-h  two  and  a  half  centuries  ;  with  a 
population  embracing  some  of  the  best  elements 
of  the  Caucasian  race ;  with  abundant  natural  re- 
sources ;  with  wealth,  enterprise  and  culture  ;  situ- 
ated at  the  key-point  between  the  two  greatest 
water  systems  on  the  continent;  lined  with  busy 
railroads ;  her  cities  bustling  with  varied  indus- 
tries;  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  nineteenth-century 
progress,  Wisconsin  is  destined  to  become  one  of 
the  greatest  of  American  States,  as  it  is  already 
one  of  the  most  healthful,  beautiful  and  fertile. 


N   J?^,i\  s 


THE    STORY    OF    WISCONSIN 


TOLD    IN'    CHRONOLOGICAL   EPITOME. 

MouNl'AlNS  as  lofty  as  the  Himalayas  of  our  clay  are  thought  to  have 
occupied  the  plains  of  Central  Wisconsin  while  but  little  else  of  the  American 
continent  had  yet  risen  from  the  ancient  ocean,  and  while  most  of  Europe 
was  still  submerged.  Interesting  thus  early  in  her  career,  Wisconsin  has, 
since  the  coming  of  man,  been  the  theater  of  events  which  have  their  value 
to  the  archsologist,  ethnologist  and  historian. 

THE    ERA    OE    UECINNINGS. 

All  over  Wisconsin,  particularly  along  the  shores  of  her  lakes,  great  and 
small,  upon  her  river  benches  and  crowning  the  summits  of  her  rugged  hill- 
tops, are  the  curious  earth-works  which  we  ascribe  to  the  "  Mound-builders." 
As  to  their  age,  there  is  a  wide  difference  of  opinion  among  scientific 
observers.  As  to  who  the  "  Mound-builders  "  were,  there  is  abundant  room 
for  individual  speculation.  It  is,  however,  the  opinion  of  the  most  careful 
experts,  and  the  theory  accepted  by  the  United  States  Ethnological  Bureau, 
that  the  mounds  are  not  the  product  of  a  race  of  people  now  extinct,  as  has 
been  so  long  believed,  but  that  they  were  built  by  the  ancestors  of  existing 
tribes  of  Indians — in  ^\'isconsin,  the  Dakotas,  of  whom  the  present 
Winnebagoes  are  the  lineal  descendants;  and  that  while  many  of  the 
mounds,  particularly  those  in  the  form  of  animals,  are  doubtless  of  great 
antiquity,  possibly  several  thousands  of  years  of  age,  others  are  of  compara- 
tively recent  construction — probably  a  generation  or  two  earlier  than  the 
arrival  of  the  first  French  explorers. 

Nearly  two  thousand  implements  and  ornaments  of  hardened  copper  — 
chiefly  knives,  axes,  spear  and  arrow-heads,  drills,  awls,  beads  and  amulets 
—  have  been  picked  up  in  Wisconsin,  chiefly  in  the  lake-shore  counties  and 
on  the  banks  of  inland  lakes  in  the  southern  section  of  the  State,  and  some- 
times in  mounds  that  are  apparently  ancient.  Here  again,  archaeologists 
are  not  at  all  in  unison.  Some  maintain  that  these  articles  were  fashioned 
ages  ago,  and  that  the-art  of  hardening  copper  has  been  lost  to  the  world; 
while  others  there  are  who  believe  them  but  little  older  than  the  French 
occupation  —  and  some  have  been  so  bold  as  to  claim  that  the  first  French- 
men who  visited  Lake  Superior  taught  to  the  Indians  the  art  of  working  the 
metal,  just  as  other  Frenchmen  are  known  to  have  initiated  the  natives  in 
the  art  of  lead-working.  There  is  no  sure  foundation  in  the  study  of  Wis- 
consin archaeology,  whtn    the  doctors  thus  disagree.     We  only  know  that 

3^9 


37°  ERA    OF  DISCOVERY. 


nowhere  else  in  the  United  States  have  so  many  prehistoric  copper  imple- 
ments been  found  —  many  of  them  identical  in  shape  with  those  found  in 
Ireland  and  Switzerland ;  and  in  no  other  State  are  there  so  many  interest- 
ing forms  of  prehistoric  mounds. 


THE    ERA    OF    DISCOVERY. 

Wisconsin  being  at  the  head  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  embracing  several 
of  the  most  important  portages  connecting  the  water  system  of  the  Great 
Lakes  with  that  of  the  Mississippi  River,  her  geographical  character  was 
made  known  to  the  French  authorities  at  Quebec  quite  early  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  But  it  was  not  until  the  year  1634  that  an  agent  of  New 
France  was  sent  thither,  in  the  person  of  Jean  Nicolet;  he  being,  so  far  as 
historical  records  show,  the  first  white  man  to  set  foot  upon  the  territory  out 
of  which  Wisconsin  was  formed. 

1634.  The  country  was  explored  by  Jean  Nicolet,  from  Lake  Michigan, 
for  a  considerable  distance  up  the  Fox  River. 

1658.  Sieur  Radisson  and  Sieur  des  Groseilliers,  two  French  fur-traders, 
visited  the  Green  Bay  region  and  wintered  among  the  Pottawatomies. 

1659.  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  went  up  Fox  River,  in  the  spring,  and 
spent  four  months  in  explorations  along  Wisconsin  streams.  It  is  thought 
that  they  descended  the  Wisconsin  River  and  saw  the  Mississippi. 

1661.  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  arrived  at  Chequamegon  Bay  in  the 
early  winter  and  built  a  stockade  near  where  Ashland  now  is.  They  spent 
the  winter  in  wandering  through  northwest  Wisconsin  and  northeastern 
Minnesota. 

1662.  Radisson  and  Groseilliers  built,  in  the  spring,  a  new  fort  at  Oak 
Point,  on  Chequamegon  Bay-  In  June,  a  Jesuit  missionary,  Rene  Menard, 
accompanied  by  his  servant,  Jean  Guerin,  proceeded  from  Keweenaw  Point 
to  the  source  of  Black  River,  probably  via  Green  Bay  and  the  Fox, 
Wisconsin  and  Mississippi  rivers.  Menard  lost  his  life  on  the  Black 
River. 

1665.  Father  Claude  .Mlougv-  established  the  mission  of  La  Pointe,  on 
Chequamegon  Bay. 

1669.  Allouez  established  a  mission  on  the  shores  of  Green  Bay,  finally 
locating  at  I)e  Pare  in  1671. 

1670.  Allouez  made  a  voyage  u])  Fox  River  to  the  jiresent  limits  of 
Cn.i.n  Lake  cf)unty. 

1671.  Tiie  French  took  formal  jjossession  of  tiie  whole  Nortliwcst,  which 
act  was  confirmed  in  i6<S9. 

1673.  Louis  Joliet,  accompanied  by  Father  James  Marquette,  discovered 
the  Upper  Mississippi,  at  Prairie  dii  Chien.  .Sieur  Raudin,  representing  La 
Salle,  visited  the  western  extremity  of  Lake  .Superior,  to  open  the  fur  trade. 

1674.  Marf|uette  coasted  Lake  Michigan,  from  Green  Bay,  rw  Milwaukee 
I'.ay  to  the  site  of  the  ])rcs(nt  city  of  ("liicago. 


ERA    OF  DISCOVERY.  37 


1679.  The  Griffin,  a  schooner  built  by  La  Salle,  and  the  first  to  make 
a  voyage  of  the  lakes  above  Niagara,  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  Green  Bay. 
La  Salle  made  a  canoe  voyage  along  the  Wisconsin  shore  of  Lake  Michigan, 
from  Green  Bay  to  Chicago.  Daniel  Grayson  du  Lhut  (Duluth)  ascended 
St.  Louis  River,  held  a  council,  and  concluded  a  peace  with  the  natives 
west  of  Lake  Superior. 

1680.  Du  Lhut  voyaged  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Mississippi  River, 
by  ascending  the  Bois  Brule  and  descending  the  St.  Croix.  Father  Louis 
Hennepin  ascended  the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  returning, 
in  company  with  Du  Lhut,  over  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers,  to  Green 
Bay. 

1681.  Marquette's  journal  and  map  of  his  travels  and  explorations  in  the 
Northwest  were  published  in  France. 

1683.  Le  .Sueur  made  a  voyage  of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers  to  the 
Mississippi. 

1685.  Nicholas  Perrot,  who  had  been  at  Green  Bay  as  early  as  1669, 
was  appointed  "commandant  of  the  West."  He  proceeded  over  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  river  route  to  the  Upper  Mississippi,  spending  the  winter  at  a 
point  near  the  present  village  of  Trempealeau.  In  1686  and  in  later  years 
he  established  posts  on  Lake  Pepin  and  near  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin. 

1689.  Baron  la  Hontan  claimed  to  have  penetrated  the  Wisconsin  wilds, 
this  year,  by  the  Fox-Wisconsin  route,  and  to  have  made  extensive  dis- 
coveries on  the  Upper  Mississippi. 

1693-95.  Military  posts  established  by  Le  Sueur,  on  Chequamegon  Bay 
and  on  an  island  in  the  Mississippi,  guarding  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix. 

1699.  Father  St.  Cosme  voyaged  along  the  Wisconsin  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan.     He  visited  the  site  of  Milwaukee,  October  7. 

1700.  Le  Sueur  discovers  lead  mines  in  southwestern  Wisconsin. 
1706-07.     Marin  attacked  the  Fox  Indians  at  Winnebago  Rapids  (Neenah). 
1712.     The  Wisconsin  Foxes,  instigated  by  the  Iroquois,  besieged  Detroit. 
1716.     De  Louvigny's  battle  with  the  Fox  Indians  at  Butte  des  Morts. 

1718.  We  find  mention  of  French  being  at  Green  Bay.  Saint  Pierre  is 
sent  to  La  Pointe  to  induce  the  Chippewas  not  to  make  war  on  the  Foxes, 
and  to  make  peace  between  the  Chippewas  and  the  Sioux,  with  whom  the 
Foxes  were  allied. 

1719.  Francis  Renalt  explored  the  Upper  Mississippi  with  two  hundred 
miners. 

1718-21.  Fort  St.  Francis  established  at  Green  Bay  on  the  present  site 
of  Fort  Howard.     Father  Charlevoix  visits  Green  Bay. 

1725.  Father  Chardon,  missionary  at  Green  Bay,  reports  that  the  Foxes 
refuse  to  let  the  French  traders  pass  over  the  Fox- Wisconsin  river  to  go  to 
the  Sioux  country. 

1726.  The  Cardinells. settle  temporarily  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  De  Lignery 
makes  a  treaty  with  the  Sacs,  Foxes  and  Winnebagoes,  permitting  the 
French  to  pass  through  Wisconsin  to  trade  with  the  Sioux  at  the  west  side 
of   Lake  Pepin. 


37- 


EUA    OF   COLONIZATION. 


1727.  The  French  establish  Fort  Lieauharnois  on  Lake  Pepin,  with  Sieur 
de  la  Perriere  as  commandant. 

1728.  A  great  flood  in  the  Mississippi,  and  Fort  Beauharnois  submerged. 
A  French  expedition  under  De  Lignery,  fron  Michillimackinac,  punishes  the 
Sacs  and  Fo.xes.  Fort  St.  Francis  destroyed,  to  prevent  its  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  Indians. 

1730.  Marin,  commanding  among  the  Menomonees.  repels  the  Foxes  and 
later  in  the  year  De  Villiers  vanquishes  the  tribe. 

1734.  A  battle  between  the  French  and  the  Sacs  and  Foxes. 

1735.  Legardeur  Saint  Pierre  commands  at  Lake  Pepin. 

1737.  Saint  Pierre  evacuates  his  post,  having  heard  from  La  Pointe  of 
the  massacre  of  the  Verendrye  party  at  the  Lake  of  the  Woods. 

1742.     The  French  distribute  presents  to  the  Sacs  and  Foxes. 

1749.     The  younger  Marin  stationed  at  La  Pointe. 

1752.     lie  commands  at  Lake  Pepin. 

1754.  Marin,  now  in  command  at  Green  P>ay,  made  a  peace  with  the 
Indians.  De  Villiers,  of  Fox-war  fame,  defeats  Washington  at  Fort 
Necessity. 

1756.  Marin,  commandant  at  Green  Bay,  and  probably  Hertel  de  Beau- 
bassin,  commandant  at  La  Pointe,  took  part  with  De  Villiers  in  operations 
against  the  English  in  New  York. 

1758.  Menomonees  killed  eleven  Frenchmen  at  Green  Bay  and  pillaged 
a  storehouse. 

1760.  The  fall  of  New  France,  leaving  Wisconsin  in  possession  of 
England. 

1761.  Captain  Belfour  and  Lieutenant  Gorrell,  with  English  troops, 
took  possession  of  Green  Bay. 

1783.  The  English,  under  Lieutenant  Gorrell,  abandoned  Green  Bay  in 
consequence  of  the  Indian  war  under  Pontiac.  Treaty  of  Paris,  by  which 
New  France,  including  Wisconsin,  was  formally  surrei\dered  to  the  English. 

1765.  Henry,  an  English  trader,  re-opened  the  Indian  trade  on  Chequa- 
megon  Bay. 

THE    ERA    or   COLONIZATION. 

1766.  P.y  this  year,  the  Langladcs  and  other  white  traders  had  permanently 
.settled  at  Green  Bay  —the  first  white  people  to  call  Wisconsin  their  home. 
Jonathan  Carver,  a  famous  traveler,  visited  Wisconsin. 

1774.  Civil  government  was  cstal)lished  over  Canada  and  the  Northwest 
by  the  "  Quebec  Act." 

1777-78-  Indians  from  Wisconsin,  under  I,anghule  and  Gautier,  join  the 
I'.ritish  against  the  Americans. 

1779  Giinli.i  Icadsaliandof  Wisconsin  Indians  against  Peoria.  Captain 
Robertson,  of  ihr  i'.ritish  sloop  "  Felicity,"  made  a  voyage  of  reconnois- 
sance  around  Lake  Michigan,  inducing  traders  and  Indians  to  support  the 
English. 


ERA    OF   COLO.VIZA  riON.  373 


1780.  Wisconsin  Indians  attack  St.  Louis  and  ("aliokia.  [olin  Long, 
an  English  trader,  visits  Green  liay  and  Prairie  du  Ciiien. 

1781.  Lieutenant-Governor  Patrick  Sinclair,  of  Mackinaw,  purchased 
Green  Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien  and  the  intervening  territory  from  the  Indians, 
which  purchase  was  not  confirmed  by  the  American  government.  The 
settlement  of  Prairie  du  Chien  was  commenced  by  Bazil  Giard,  Augustin 
Ange  and  Pierre  Antaya. 

1786.     Julian  Dubuque  explored  the  lead  region  of  the  Upper  Mississippi. 

1788.  At  an  Indian  council  at  Green  Bay,  permission  to  work  the  lead 
mines  was  given  to  Dubuque. 

1789.  Jean  Baptiste  Mirandeau  is  alleged  to  have  settled  at  Milwaukee. 
1793.      Lawrence    Barth    built  a  cabin   at   the   portage  of   the    Fox  and 

Wisconsin  rivers,  and  engaged  in  the  carrying  trade. 

1795.  Jacques  Vieau  established  trading  posts  at  Kewaunee,  Sheboygan, 
Manitowoc  and  Milwaukee. 

1796.  The  western  posts  surrendered  by  the  English  to  the  United  States, 
and  the  ordinance  of  1787  extended  over  the  whole  Northwest. 

1800.     Indiana  territory  organized,  including  Wisconsin. 

1803.  Charles  Reaume  appointed  magistrate  at  Green  Bay,  by  Governor 
William  Henry  Harrison,  of  Indiana. 

1804.  Indian  treaty  at  St.  Louis;  a  portion  of  southern  Wisconsin, 
including  the  lead  region,  purchased. 

1805.  Michigan  territory  organized. 

1809.  Thomas  Nuttall,  the  botanist,  and  John  Bradbury,  the  naturalist, 
explored  W^isconsin.  Wilson  P.  Hunt  and  Ramsay  Crooks  passed  through 
Wisconsin  with  the  land  expedition  destined  to  found  Astoria,  Oregon. 
Illinois  territory  was  organized,  including  nearly  all  of  W' isconsin. 

1812.  Indians  assembled  at  Green  Bay  to  join  the  English. 

1813.  Governor  Clarke  took  possession  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  built 
Fort  Shelby. 

1814.  Fort  Shelby  surrendered  to  the  British,  under  Colonel  McKay. 

1815.  United  States  trading  post  established  at  Green  Bay. 

1816.  Indian  treaty  confirming  that  of  1S04.  John  Jacob  Astor  reestab- 
lishes the  American  Fur  Company  at  Mackinaw,  with  branches  in  Wisconsin. 
United  States  troops  took  possession  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  commenced 
the  erection  of  Fort  Crawford.  Colonel  Miller  commenced  the  erection  of 
Fort  Howard,  at  Green  Bay. 

1818.  Illinois  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  Wisconsin  was  attached  to 
Michigan  territory.  Brown,  Crawford  and  Michillimackinac  counties  were 
organized  in  the  territory  of  Michigan,  which  emt^raced  in  their  boundaries 
besides  other  territory,  the  whole  of  the  present  State  of  Wisconsin.  Solo- 
mon Juneau  arrived  at  Milwaukee. 

1820.      United  States  commissioners  adjusted  land  claims  at  Green  Bay. 

1822.  The  New  York  Indians  purchased  lands  east  of  Lake  Winnebago. 
James  Johnson  obtained  from  the  Indians  the  right  to  dig  for  lead  with 
negro  slaves  from  Kentucky. 


374-  ERA    OF  FORMATION. 


1823.  Counties  of  Brown,  Crawford  and  Michillimackinac  made  a  sep- 
arate judicial  district  by  Congress.  First  steamboat  on  tlie  upper  Missis- 
sippi, with  Major  Taliafero  and  Count  Beltrami.  Lieutenant  Bayfield,  of 
the  British  navy,  made  a  survey  of  Lake  Superior.  An  Episcopal  mission 
established  near  Green  Bay. 

THE    ERA    OF    FORMAXrON. 

1824.  First  term  of  United  States  circuit  court  held  at  Green  Bay; 
James  D.  Doty,  judge  —  October  4.  Judge  Doty  commenced  agitation  in 
behalf  of  territorial  formation. 

1826.  First  steamboat  on  Lake  Michigan. 

1827.  A  rush  of  speculators  to  the  lead  mines,  and  leases  by  govern- 
ment to  miners.  Red  Bird  uprising.  Treaty  with  the  Menomonee  Indians 
at  Butte  des  Morts  —  August  11. 

1828.  Fort  Winnebago  built  at  "  the  portage."  Indian  treaty  at  Green 
Bay ;  the  lead  regions  purchased.  Lead  ore  discovered  at  Mineral  Point 
and  Dodgeville. 

1829.  A  Methodist  mission  established  at  Green  Bay. 

1830.  The  Siou.x  killed  seventeen  Sacs  and  Fo.xes  near  Prairie  du  Chien 
—  May. 

1832.  Black  Hawk  War.  The  Sac  leader  invades  Illinois  at  Yellow 
Banks  —  April  6.  Defeat  of  whites  at  Stillman's  creek  —  May  14.  Battle 
of  Wisconsin  Heights  —  July  21.  Battle  of  Bad  Axe  and  defeat  of  Black 
Hawk  —  August  2.     Public  lands  in  the  lead  region  surveyed. 

1833.  Indian  treaty  at  Chicago  ;  lands  south  and  west  of  Milwaukee 
ceded  to  the  Government  —  September  26.  American  settlement  began  at 
Milwaukee  in  the  fall  of  this  year.  First  newspaper,  "  Green  Bay  Intelli- 
gencer," published — December  11. 

1834.  Land  offices  established  at  Mineral  Point  and  (Ireen  liay.  Census 
taken,  population  4,795. 

1835.  First  steamboat  landed  at  Milwaukee  —  June  17.  Pul)lic  lands  at 
Milwaukee  surveyed. 

1836.  Meeting  in  Milwaukee  to  ask  legislature  to  grant  a  charter  for  a 
railway  from  Lake  Michigan  to  Mississippi  River.  The  legislative  council 
of  so  much  of  Michigan  Territory  as  was  not  to  be  included  in  the  new 
State  of  Michigan,  met  at  Green  Bay  —  January  9.  Henry  Dodge  ap- 
pointed Governor  by  President  Andrew  Jackson  —  April  30.  Territory  of 
Wisconsin  organized — July  4.  "Milwaukee  Advertiser"  published  at 
No.  371  Third  Street  —  July  14.  First  school  opened  in  Milwaukee,  at 
No.  371  Third  Street.  United  States  land  olfue  <i]iene(l  at  Milwaukee. 
Gold  discovered  at  Kewaunee. 

1837.  Sioux  treaty;  lands  east  of  the  .Mississippi  coded  —  September  29. 

1838.  (."ongress  appropriated  $2,000  for  surveying  a  railroad  route  from 
Milwaiikci;  to  the  Mississippi  River. 


ERA    OF  DEVELOPMENT. 


375 


1839.  Indian  (Sioux  and  Cliii^pewa)  battle  ;  200  killed.  The  capital 
located  at  Madison.     Mitchell's  bank  opened  in  Milwaukee. 

1840.  First  brew  of  beer  at  Milwaukee  —  July. 

1842.  Charles  C.  P.  Arndt  shot  in  council  chamber  by  James  R.  \'ine- 
yard — February  11. 

1844.  Originators  of  the  Wisconsin  Phalanx  settle  at  Ceresco,  now 
Ripon  —  May. 

1845.  James  Jesse  Strang  establishes  a  Mormon  colony  at  Voree. 

1846.  A  vote  of  the  people  in  favor  of  a  state  government  —  April.  Act 
of  Congress  authorizing  a  state  government  —  August. 

1847.  First  railroad  charter  in  Wisconsin  granted  to  the  Milwaukee  & 
Waukesha  Company. 

1848.  Wisconsin  admitted  as  a  State  —  May  29.  First  State  legislature 
convenes — June  5.  First  State  officers  sworn  in — June  7.  First  United 
States  Senators,  Henry  Dodge  and  Isaac  P.  Walker,  elected.  Andrew  J. 
Miller,  first  judge  United  States  District  Court,  appointed  —  June  12. 

THE   ERA   OF    DEVELOPMENT. 

1849.  First  earth  moved  for  a  railroad  in  Wisconsin,  at  Milwaukee. 
Legislature,  by  joint  resolution,  instructed  United  States  Senator,  Isaac  P. 
Walker,  to  resign  —  March  31.  First  telegram  received  at  Milwaukee  — 
"Chicago  and  Milwaukee  united"  —  January  17.  Cholera  epidemic. 
"  Gold  fever  "  took  many  settlers  to  California. 

1850.  Liquor  riot  at  Milwaukee.  Mob  attacked  and  partly  wrecked  res- 
idence of  John  B.  Smith,  for  introducing,  while  in  the  legislature,  a  bill 
called  the  "blue  liquor  law."  Smith  being  absent,  escaped  injury  — 
March  4. 

1851.  First  railroad  train  run  between  Milwaukee  and  Waukesha  — 
F^ebruary.  Catholics  of  Milwaukee  mobbbed  Mr.  Leahy,  a  former  Catho- 
lic, for  delivering  anti-Catholic  lectures  —  April. 

1853.  Charges  lodged  against  Levi  Ilubbell,  alleging  malfeasance  in 
office  as  judge  of  second  judicial  district.      He  was  acquitted —  January. 

1854.  Meeting  held  at  Ripon,  called  by  A.  E.  Bovay,  Jediah  Bowen  and 
others  to  organize  the  Republican  party.  Name  "  Republican  "  then  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Bovay  —  February  28.  Beginning  of  contest  between  federal 
and  State  authorities  over  fugitive  slave  law,  by  arrest  of  Joshua  Glover,  a 
negro,  at  Racine,  and  his  forcible  liberation  at  Milwaukee.  First  Republi- 
can mass  convention,  held  in  Capitol  Park,  at  Madison ;  three  thousand 
persons  participated  ;  name  "  Republican  "  formally  i.dopted  —  July  13. 

1856.  Coles  Bashford  took  oath  of  office  as  governor,  and  began  pro- 
ceedings to  oust  William  A.  Barstow,  on  the  ground  that  15arstow  was 
wrongfully  "counted  in"  by  means  of  fictitious  and  fraudulent  "supple- 
mental "  returns  from  unpeopled  districts  in  the  north  part  of  the  State  — 
January  7.  Barstow's  counsel  withdrew  from  the  case  —  March  8.  The 
supreme  court  found   Barstow  to  be  a  usurper,  counted  in    upon   fraudulent 


37<^  I'-RA    OF  DEVELOPMENT. 


returns  from  Spring  Creek,  Gilbert's  Mills  and  other  places.  Barstovv 
abandoned  the  office,  and  Lieutenant-Governor  McArthur  assumed  the 
executive  chair  for  four  days.  Was  succeeded  by  Bashford.  Steamer 
Niagara  burned  off  Port  Washington  ;  John  B.  Macy,  pioneer  member  of 
Congress,  one  of  the  lost  —  September  24. 

1857.  First  railway  reached  Mississippi  River,  at  Prairie  du  Chien  — 
April  15. 

1859.  Excursion  train  celebrating  opening  of  what  is  now  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  railway,  between  Fond  du  Lac  and  Chicago,  wrecked  at  John- 
son's Creek,  Jefferson  County.  Fourteen  killed,  seven  wounded  —  Novem- 
ber I. 

i860.  Steamer  Lady  Elgin,  with  six  hundred  excursionists,  sunk  in  colli- 
sion off  Racine  ;  two  hundred  and  twenty-five,  mostly  from  Third  ward  of 
Milwaukee,  drowned  —  September  8. 

1861.  Report  received  of  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter  —  April  10. 
Lincoln's  call  for  75,000  three  months'  volunteers  —  April  15.  Governor 
Randall  calls  for  one  regiment  from  Wisconsin — April  16.  The  Madison 
Guard  had  tendered  its  services  January  9,  and  was  the  first  coftipany 
accepted,  April  16.  By  the  twenty-second,  the  First  regiment  was  organized 
and  ready  for  orders ;  it  was  mustered  into  United  States  service  May  17, 
receiving  marching  orders  June  7.  Bank  riot  at  Milwaukee.  Mitchell's 
bank  attacked ;  inmates,  including  Mr.  Mitchell,  escaped,  but  building 
damaged.  Militia  called  out  —  June  24.  George  C.  Drake,  Company  A, 
First  Infantry,  first  Wisconsin  soldier  killed  in  the  Rebellion  at  skirmish  of 
Falling  Waters,  Va.  —  July  2.  The  Second  Wisconsin  the  last  regiment  to 
leave  the  field  of  Bull  Run.  The  Third  arrest  the  Maryland  legislature  at 
Frederick. 

1862.  Governor  L.  P.  Harvey  started  South  to  note  the  wants  of  Wiscon- 
sin soldiers  —  April  10.  Governor  Harvey  accidentally  drowned  in  the 
Tennessee  River — April  19.  About  700  Confederate  prisoners  received  at 
Camp  Randall,  Madison  —  April.  The  Fourteenth  regiment  captures  a 
battery  at  Shiloh.  The  Iron  Brigade  wins  renown  at  Gainesville.  In  the 
battles  of  the  Second  Bull  Run,  Cedar  Mountain,  Antietam,  Corinth,  Chap- 
lin Hills,  Prairie  Grove,  Fredericksburg  and  Stone's  River,  Wisconsin 
troops  won  especial  honors.  Draft  riots  in  Port  Washington,  West  ISend 
and  Milwaukee  quelled  by  troops. 

1863.  Democratic  State  convention  at  Madison  adopts  the  "Ryan  Ad- 
dress," denouncing  the  war  and  attacking  the  Federal  government  — 
August  5.  "  War  Democrats"  held  mass  convention  at  Janesville,  to  pro- 
test against  the  "Ryan  Address,"  and  pledge  the  support  of  Wisconsin  to 
the  government  in  its  struggle  with  treason  —  Scptemlier  17.  Wisconsin 
soldiers  particularly  distinguished  themselves  in  the  battles  of  Fitz  Hugh's 
Crossing,  Chancellorsville,  Arkansas  Post,  Port  Gibson,  Champion  Hills, 
Big  Black,  Helena,  Gettysburg,  I'ort  Hudson,  Chickamanga,  Mission  Ridge, 
the  Rappahannock  Redoubts  and  Carrion  Crow,  in  the  assault  on  Mary's 
Hill,  and  in  llie  siege  of  Vicksburg. 


ERA    OF  PROGRESS.  377 


1864.  Colonel  Ilobart,  of  Wisconsin,  assists  in  the  escape  by  tht  Libby 
Prison  tunnel  —  February  9.  Wisconsin  regiments  were  prominent  in  the 
Red  River  expedition,  in  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  Spotsylvania,  the 
crossing  of  the  North  Anna,  Petersburg  and  Hatcher's  Run,  in  the  move- 
ment against  Atlanta,  in  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea,  and  in  the  operations 
in  and  around  Nashville. 

1865.  Wisconsin  troops  were  with  Sherman  when  Johnston's  army  sur- 
rendered, also  in  the  final  operations  against  Mobile  and  in  many  other  of 
the  closing  engagements  of  the  war.  Wisconsin  cavalry  assisted  in  captur- 
ing Jefferson  Davis.  The  State  furnished  91,327  men  to  the  war.  Cyclone 
at  Viroqua,  Vernon  County;  seventeen  persons  killed,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  wounded  and  many  buildings  demolished  —  June  28. 

THE   ERA    OK    PROGRESS. 

1866.  Fourth  Regiment  Cavalry  mustered  out  after  service  of  five  years 
and  one  day,  longest  term  on  record  of  a  volunteer  organization  —  May  28. 
James  R.  Doolittle  requested  by  the  Wisconsin  Legislature  to  resign  from 
the  United  States  Senate  for  siding  with  the  South. 

1868.  The  Sea  Bird  burned  on  Lake  Michigan ;  all  lost  but  two  — 
April. 

1871.  Great  tires  in  Door,  Oconto,  Shawano,  Outagamie,  Brown  and 
Manitowoc  counties.  One  thousand  persons  perished  and  three  thousand 
were  beggared  —  October  8. 

1873.  Steamer  Ironsides  wrecked  between  Milwaukee  and  Grand  Haven  ; 
twenty-eight  people  lost  —  September  14.  Hurricane  on  Green  Lake,  Green 
Lake  County.     Eleven  persons  drowned  —  July  4. 

1874.  Potter  railroad  law  enacted.  Alexander  Mitchell  and  Albert  Keep, 
presidents  respectively  of  the  St.  Paul  and  the  Northwestern  roads,  issutd 
proclamations  directed  to  the  governor  defying  the  Potter  law  and  announc- 
ing that  they  should  operate  their  railroads  without  regard  for  its  provisions 
—  April  29.  Governor  Taylor  issued  a  proclamation  demanding  obedience 
to  the  Potter  law  —  May.  State  supreme  court  sustains  the  law — .Septem- 
ber. 

1875.  A  large  portion  of  Oshkosh  burned  —  April  2S.  First  cotton  cloth 
made  in  Wisconsin,  at  Janesville. 

1876.  Supreme  Court  rejected  the  application  of  Miss  Lavinia  Goodell, 
for  admission  to  the  bar  of  Wisconsin  —  January. 

1877.  Legislature  enacted  a  lawgiving  women  the  right  to  practice  law. 
Destructive  cyclone  at  Pensaukee,  Oconto  County. 

1878.  Tramp  War.  Mineral  Point  cyclone;  from  eleven  to  sixteen  per- 
sons killed  —  June. 

1880.  Death  of  Chief  Justice  E.  G.  Ryan  —  October  19. 

1881.  Death  of  Matthew  H.  Carpenter,  e.K-U.  S.  senator  —  February  24. 
Strike  of  all  the  cigar-makers  of  Milwaukee.  "  Saw-dust  war  "  at  Eau  Claire. 
Striking  men  threatened  to  destroy  mills.     Militia  called  out —  July. 


378  ERA    OF   PROGRESS. 


1883.  Xewhall  House,  Milwaukee,  burned  ;  between  seventy  and  eighty 
persons  perished  —  January  10.  Death  of  Timothy  O.  Howe,  ex-U.  S. 
senator — March  25.  South  wing  of  the  capitol  extension,  during  process 
of  erection,  fell,  killing  seven  workmen —  November  8.  Cyclone  at  Racine  ; 
thirteen  persons  killed. 

1884.  Science  Hall  of  the  State  University  burned  —  December  i. 

1886.  Workmen  in  Milwaukee  struck  to  enforce  the  adoption  of  the 
eight-hour  day  —  May  i.  Strikers  became  riotous  at  Bay  View  and  Milwau- 
kee, and,  refusing  to  obey  the  proclamation  of  Governor  Rusk,  were  fired 
upon  by  the  militia.  Seven  killed  and  several  wounded  —  May  3-5.  "  Lim- 
ited Express  "  on  C,  M.  «&  St.  P.  R.  R.  wrecked  and  burned  at  East  Rio ; 
fifteen  persons  burned  or  killed  —  October. 

1887.  Culmination  of  the  Gogebic  iron  stocks  craze. 

1888.  Collapse  of  the  Gogebic  iron  stocks. 

1889.  Strike  of  laborers  at  West  Superior.  Quiet  restored  by  State 
militia. 

Wisconsin  has  contributed  to  the  direction  and  development  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  four  cabinet  members,  namely :  Alexander  W. 
Randall,  postmaster-general  under  President  Johnson  ;  Timothy  O.  Howe, 
postmaster-general  under  President  Hayes ;  William  F.  Vilas,  at  first 
postmaster-general  and  later  secretary  of  the  interior,  under  President 
Cleveland,  and  Jeremiah  M.  Rusk,  secretary  of  agriculture  under  President 
Harrison.  She  has  furnished  numerous  ministers  to  foreign  courts,  and 
many  of  her  sons  have  won  high  official  station  in  other  States. 


THE    PEOPLE'S    COVENANT 


AS    EMBODIED    IN    THE    CONSTITUTION    OF     TIIK    STATE 
OF    WISCONSIN. 

In  April,  1S46,  the  people  voted  in  favor  of  a  State  Government.  On  the 
sixteenth  of  December,  a  constitution  was  adopted  in  convention,  which  was 
rejected  by  a  vote  of  the  people.  February  4,  1848,  a  second  constitution 
was  adopted  in  convention,  which  was  ratified  by  the  people  on  the  thirteenth 
of  March,  in  that  year,  and  on  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  May  Wisconsin  became 
a  State  in  the  Union,  being  the  seventeenth  admitted,  and  the  thirtieth  in  the 
list  of  States,     The  preamble  of  the  Constitution  is  as  follows  : 

"  We,  the  people  of  Wisconsin,  grateful  to  Almighty  God  for  our  freedom, 
in  order  to  secure  its  blessings,  form  a  more  perfect  government,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  and  promote  the  general  welfare,  do  establish  this 
Constitution." 

The  document  itself  is  divided  into  fourteen  articles,  which  are  here  con- 
densed to  the  briefest  possible  limits. 

Article  I.  constitutes  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  and  is  divided  into  twenty- 
two  sections.  After  laying  down  the  general  princijile  that  government  is 
established  to  secure  personal  freedom,  it  makes  special  applications  as  fol- 
lows:  Slavery  is  prohibited,  and  freedom  of  speech,  assembly  and  petition, 
as  well  as  legal  justice,  guaranteed.  Treason  is  defined  ;  rights  of  search 
limited  ;  bills  of  attainder  and  corruption  of  blood,  and  ex  post  facto  laws  are 
forbidden;  contracts  shall  not  be  impaired;  private  property  must  be  re- 
spected by  the  State  ;  there  shall  be  no  distinction  against  resident  aliens, 
and  feudal  tenures  are  forbidden.  There  shall  be  no  imprisonment  for  debt, 
and  "  a  reasonable  amount  of  property"  is  to  be  exempt  from  seizure  or 
sale.  Religious  freedom  is  guaranteed.  The  military  shall  be  subordinate 
to  the  civil  power  and  writs  of  error  shall  never  be  prohibited  by  law. 

Article  II.  divided  into  two  sections,  defines  the  boundaries  of  the  State. 

Article  III.  consisting  of  six  sections,  relates  to  suffrage.  Only  males, 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  are  qualified  to  vote.  If  a  foreigner,  the  voter 
must  have  resided  one  year  within  the  State  and  declared  his  intention  to 
become  a  citizen.  Civilized  Indians  or  those  made  citizens  by  Congress, 
may  vote.  The  classes  disqualified  are  :  (i)  Idiots  and  insane  persons;  (2) 
convicts,  unless  restored  to  civil  rights ;  {3)  United  States  soldiers  or 
marines  stationed  within  the  State  ;  (4)  those  who  have  a  wager  pending  on 
an  election ;  (5)  duelists.  The  manner  of  voting  is  prescribed.  Judges 
may  be  voters,  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  twenty-five  \ears  of  age. 
Both  the  governor  and  lieutenant-governor  must  be  voters  and  citizens  of 

379 


tSo  THE   CONSriTUTION. 


the  United  States.  Members  of  the  legislature  must  be  voters  and  residents 
of  their  districts.  All  State,  county,  town  and  district  officers  (except  school 
officers)  must  be  voters.  Members  of  Congress,  United  States  officers, 
officers  of  foreign  powers,  criminals  or  defaulters  cannot  be  elected  to  any 
post  of  trust,  profit  or  honor  within  the  State.  Sheriffs  are  not  eligible  for 
re-election.  The  general  State  elections  are  to  be  held  in  November;  while 
elections  for  judges  and  town,  village  or  city  officers  are  to  be  in  April. 

Article  II'.  divided  into  thirty  sections,  treats  of  the  I-egislative  depart- 
ment. The  Legislature  is  divided  into  two  houses,  the  Senate  and  the 
Assembly,  the  lower  house  to  consist  of  from  fifty-four  to  one  hundred  mem- 
bers, and  the  upper  from  one  fourth  to  one  third  as  many.  The  manner  of 
apportionment,  after  each  State  and  national  census,  is  specified.  The 
term  of  the  Senators  is  to  be  two  years  and  that  of  Assemblymen  one  year 
(afterwards  doubled,  by  amendment).  Elections  are  to  be  held  each 
November  for  all  of  the  Assemblymen  and  one  half  of  the  Senators  (after- 
wards changed  by  amendment),  and  sessions  are  to  be  held  each  year,  com- 
mencing in  January  (afterwards  made  biennial).  Each  House  is  made  the 
judge  of  the  election  of  its  own  members.  A  majority  in  each  House,  is  a 
quorum.  Each  House  must  sit  with  open  doors  and  keep  a  public  journal, 
and  may  punish  disorder,  expel  by  a  two  thirds  vote,  choose  its  officers,  and 
adjourn  for  three  days  or  less.  A  member  is  prohibited  from  accepting  any 
civil  position  in  the  State,  created  during  his  term  of  office  ;  he  must  resign 
on  accepting  any  position  under  the  United  States;  he  shall  not  be  inter- 
ested in  any  State  printing  contract  and  must  take  the  oath  of  office.  He 
is  privileged  from  arrests  and  civil  suits,  during  the  sessions  of  the  Legis- 
lature or  fifteen  days  before  or  after  the  session  ;  he  is  not  to  be  held  liable 
for  words  spoken  in  debate,  and  is  to  receive  a  per  diem  and  mileage.  The 
governor  is  to  i.ssue  writs  of  election,  to  fill  vacancies.  Any  bill  may 
originate  in  either  House.  There  shall  be  but  one  system  of  town  and 
county  government  and  that  as  nearly  uniform  as  possible.  The  Legis- 
lature cannot  authorize  a  lottery  or  declare  a  divorce.  No  extra  compen- 
sation shall  be  allowed  any  State  officer  during  his  term  of  office. 

Article  V.  has  ten  sections.  It  treats  of  the  executive  department.  The 
governor  is  made  commander-in-chief  of  the  military  and  naval  forces  of  the 
State.  His  salary  is  fi.xed  at  one  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
(afterwards  changed  to  five  thousand  dollars).  He  can  convene  the  Legis- 
lature in  special  session,  address  messages  to  it  on  matters  of  State  impor. 
tancc,  and  veto  bills ;  which,  however,  can  be  passed  over  his  veto  by  a 
two  thirds  vote  in  each  house.  He  has  charge  of  the  administration  of  the 
laws  ;  can  remove  certain  county  officers  for  cause  ;  call  elections  to  fill 
vacancies  and  issue  pardons  and  rcjirievcs.  He  can  be  removed  by  impeach- 
ment. The  lieutenant-governor  is  to  serve  in  the  absence,  disability,  death 
or  removal  of  the  governor;  and  if  both  governor  and  lieutenant-governor 
be  thus  incapacitated,  the  secretary  of  state  shall  avX  unlil  the  disability  shall 
cease.     The  lieutenant  is  also  president  of  the  Senate. 

Article  If.  treating  of  the  adniinistrati\  <.■  ilep:ii  Iniciit,  is  divided  into  four 


THE    COA'S77T(rnO/V.  3S1 


sections,  and  defines  the  nunil)cr  ;ind  rank  of  ilie  other  elective  State  officers 
and  names  the  several  boards  in  charge  of  various  branches  of  the  State 
business. 

Article  VII.  in  twenty-three  sections,  treats  of  the  judiciary.  There  are 
established,  the  State  supreme  court,  with  a  chief-justice  and  four  associ- 
ates, having  both  original  and  appellate  jmisdiction ;  and  fifteen  circuit 
judges,  also  having  original  and  appellate  jurisdiction,  and  holding  regular 
terms  in  the  several  counties  in  their  respective  circuits.  These  judges 
may  be  removed  either  by  impeachment  or  by  address.  Below  these  are  the 
probate,  municipal  and  county  courts,  court  commissioners,  justices  of  the 
Ijeace,  and  certain  tribunals  of  conciliation  which  may  be  established  by 
the  Legislature.     The  article  specifies  modes  of  procedure. 

Article  VIII.  having  ten  sections,  treats  of  finance.  Ta.xation  shall  be 
uniform  and  annual.  No  money  is  to  be  paid  from  the  treasury  except  by 
Legislative  appropriation.  The  peace  debt,  for  extraordinary  purposes, 
shall  never  exceed  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  must  be  paid  in  five 
years.  But  especial  exception  is  made,  in  times  of  war,  invasion  or  insurrec- 
tion. The  credit  of  the  State  is  never  to  be  loaned,  no  debt  shall  be  con- 
tracted for  internal  improvements  and  no  scrip  is  to  be  issued  except  for 
constitutional  debts. 

Article  IX.  in  three  sections,  treats  of  eminent  domain  and  property. 

Article  X.  consisting  of  eight  sections,  treats  of  education.  The  edu- 
cational affairs  are  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  state  superintendent  and  such 
other  ofiicers  as  the  Legislature  may  direct.  The  sources  of  the  school 
fund  are  declared  to  be  :  (i)  The  lands  granted  to  the  State  by  the  United 
States,  for  this  purpose  ;  (2)  property  forfeited  or  escheated;  (3)  military 
exemptions  ;  (4)  net  proceeds  of  penal  fines  ;  (5)  all  unspecified  grants  to 
the  State ;  (6)  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  obtained  from  the 
United  States;  (7)  five  per  cent,  of  the  net  proceeds  of  United  States  land 
sales.  Under  certain  conditions,  the  school  fund  is  appropriated  in  pro- 
portion to  the  school  population,  among  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  State. 
District  schools  are  to  be  uniform  in  character,  free  to  persons  of  school 
age  and  unsectarian.  Certain  academies  and  normal  schools  are  provided 
for.  The  State  university  is  to  be  at  or  near  the  capital,  unsectarian  and 
supported  in  part  by  special  grants  from  the  United  States.  'l"he  school 
land  commissioners  consist  of  the  secretary  of  state,  treasurer  and  attorney- 
general,  and  their  powers  and  duties  are  specified  in  the  article. 

Article  XI.  treats  of  corporations  and  is  divided  into  five  sections.  The 
article  has  been  amended  to  such  a  degree  that  but  little  of  the  original 
remains.  It  is  now  provided  that  there  shall  be  two  classes  of  corporations, 
municipal  and  private.  The  former  are  cities  organized  by  special  charters, 
which  mav  be  revised  by  the  I-egislature  ;  and  towns  and  villages  organized 
under  general  law.  In  regard  to  banks,  the  Legislature  has  no  power  to 
charter  them  ;  all  banking  laws  must  be  general,  but  can  only  be  passed  by 
special  consent  of  the  people.  General  laws  may  be  passed  for  the  recru- 
Inticn  of  other  corporations. 


38^ 


THE   CONSTITUTION. 


Article  XII.  in  two  sections,  tells  how  the  constitution  may  be  amended  : 
(i)  Bv  the  vote  of  two  successive  Legislatures  and  then  the  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple; (2)  by  a  convention,  to  be  proposed  by  the  Legislature,  called  by  the 
people,  and  arranged  for  by  the  Legislature,  and  then  the  members  of  the 
convention  to  be  elected  by  the  people. 

Article  XIII.  in  ten  sections,  contains  miscellaneous  provisions,  chiefly  in 
matters  of  detail. 

Article  XIV.  the  schedule,  in  fifteen  sections,  provides  for  the  details  of 
the  transition  from  Territory  to  State  and  winding  up  the  affairs  of  the 
Territory. 

Tliere  have  been  ten  amendments  to  the  constitution,  since  its  adoption, 
the  most  important  of  which  have  been  covered  in  the  foregoing  abstract. 


A   SELECTION    OF    BOOKS 

TOUCHING    UPON    THE    STORY    OF   WISCONSIN. 

There  have  been  previously  published  Init  few  general  histories  of  Wis- 
consin, and  none  of  them  written  in  a  popular  vein.  Lapham's  (1844  and 
1S46)  and  McLeod's  (1846)  were  issued  while  Wisconsin  was  still  a  terri- 
tory, at  a  time  when  but  little  research  had  been  made  in  the  history  of  the 
Northwest.  Smith's  (1854)  is  a  fragment.  Tuttle's  (1875)  is  an  undigested 
mass  of  annals,  filled  with  glaring  inaccuracies.  Strong's  (18S5)  is  simply 
a  compilation  of  the  Territorial  annals.  Aside  from  these,  the  Story  of 
Wisconsin  has  never  yet  appeared,  e.\cept  in  floating  sketches  introductory 
to  certain  county  histories,  reference  to  which  \yill  be  made. 

The  prime  source  of  materials  for  the  study  of  early  Wisconsin  history  is 
the  "  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,"  of  which  eleven  octavo  volumes 
have  thus  far  been  published  by  the  State  Historical  Society.  Consul  W. 
Butterfield  has  written  several  excellent  condensed  historical  sketches  of  the 
State.  One  of  these  will  be  found  in  the  opening  pages  of  each  of  the  series 
of  county  histories  published  from  1879  to  1882,  inclusive,  by  the  Western 
Historical  Company  of  Chicago.  The  sketch  in  the  histories  of  Vernon, 
Crawford  and  Green  counties  will  be  found  superior  to  the  others.  Similar 
historical  sketches  bv  Butterfield  may  be  found  in  Snyder  &  Van  Vechten's 
"  Historical  Atlas  of  Wisconsin  "  (Milwaukee,  1878)  ;  in  the  Wisconsin  num- 
ber of  "Descriptive  America"  (New  York,  October,  1884);  and  he  has 
contributed  miscellaneous  sketches  of  details  in  Wisconsin  history,  to  the 
"  Magazine  of  Western  History,"  1886-S9. 

The  following,  more  or  less  accessible,  may  be  consulted  :  "  History  of 
Wisconsin,"  by  Donald  McLeod  (1S46);  "  Wisconsin,"  by  T.  A.  Lapham 
(1844,  enlarged  in  1846);  "History  of  Wisconsin,"  by  William  R.  Smith 
(published  by  the  State,  1854,  Vols.  I.  and  HI.,  all  that  were  issued)  ; 
"Illustrated  History  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin,"  by  C.  R.  Tuttle  (1875)  ' 
"  History  of  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin,  from  1836  to  1848,"  by  Moses  M. 
Strong  (published  by  the  State,  1885). 

Special  works  of  interest  are:  "Fathers  of  Wisconsin,"  by  Horace  A. 
Tenney  and  David  Atwood  (published  by  the  State,  1880),  being  an  account 
of  the  two  constitutional  conventions,  supplemented  by  biographies  of  their 
members  ;  "  History  of  Education  in  Wisconsin  "  (published  by  the  State, 
1876) ;  "  Higher  Education  in  Wisconsin,"  by  William  F.  Allen  and  David  E. 
Spencer  (published  by  the  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  1889).  "  Wau 
Bun,  the  Early  Dav  in  the  Northwest,"  by  Mrs.  John  TT.  Kinzie.  was  originallv 
published  with  illustrations,  by  Derbv  &  Jackson,  New  York,  in  1S56;  it  was 

3S3 


384  BOOKS  RELATING    TO    WISCONSIN. 


reprinted  in  smaller  and  cheaper  form  and  without  plates,  by  J.  B.  Lippin- 
cott  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  in  1S73.  It  gives  graphic  pictures  of  life  and  man- 
ners at  the  Wisconsin  frontier  posts,  before  and  during  the  Black  Hawk 
War.  "  Historic  Waterways,"  by  Reuben  G.  Thwaites  (Chicago,  188S), 
describes  the  historic  rivers  of  Wisconsin  as  they  appear  to-day,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  story  of  their  past.  George  Gale's  "  Upper  Mississippi ;  or.  His- 
torical Sketches  of  the  Mound-Builders,  the  Indian  Tribes  and  the  Progress 
of  Civilization  in  the  West "  (Chicago,  1S67)  is  now  rare  and  excellent.  But 
the  latest  conclusions  regarding  the  mound-builders  should  be  sought  in 
Cyrus  Thomas's  "  Work  on  Mound  Explorations  "  (Bureau  of  Ethnology  Re- 
port, 1887)  ;  in  articles  by  Thomas  in  "  Magazine  of  American  History  "  for 
May,  1S87,  and  September,  1888 ;  in  Lucien  Carr's  "  Mounds  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  "  (Memoirs  of  Kentucky  Geological  Survey,  Vol.  II.) ;  and  in  P. 
R.  Hoy's  "  Who  Built  the  Mounds  ?  "  (Transactions  of  Wisconsin  Academy 
of  Sciences,  Arts  and  Letters,  Vol.  VI.)  I.  A.  Lapham's"  Antiquities  of  Wis- 
consin "  (Smithsonian  Contributions,  1855)  is  rare,  but  well  worth  hunting  up, 
being  written  in  quite  the  modern  spirit.  Most  of  the  great  mass  of  litera- 
ture about  the  mound-builders  is  unscientific  and  romantic,  and  not  worthy 
of  serious  attention.  The  vexed  question  of  who  made  the  "prehistoric" 
copper  tools  is  well  treated  by  P.  R.  Hoy  in  the  Wisconsin  Academy  vol- 
ume above  cited.  A  pamphlet  on  "  Prehistoric  Wisconsin,"  by  James  D. 
Butler,  contains  lithographs  of  some  famous  copper  implements  in  the 
museum  of  the  State  Historical  Society.  Frederick  J.  Turner's  "  The 
Character  and  Influence  of  the  Fur  Trade  in  Wisconsin  "  (published  by  the 
Wisconsin  State  Historical  Society,  1889)  cannot  be  too  highly  commended 
for  breadth  of  view  and  accuracy  of  detail.  Albert  O.  Wright's  "Expo- 
sition of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin"  (Madison,  1888)  is 
an  admirable  treatise,  used  as  a  text-book  in  the  public  schools.  The  story 
of  the  ISlack  Hawk  War  is  told  by  Reuben  G.  Thwaites  in  the  "Magazine 
of  Western  History"  (Cleveland,  O.)  for  November  and  December,  18S6. 
Charles  Dudley  Warner's  article  on  Wisconsin,  in  "Harper's  Magazine" 
for  April,  1888,  is  worthy  of  perusal.  See,  also,  the  excellent  article  on 
Wisconsin,  in  the  ninth  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  by  Thomas 
C.  Chamberlin  and  Frederick  J.  Turner,  liutterficld's  "  Discovery  of  the 
Northwest"  (Cincinnati,  1881)  is  an  exceedingly  valuable  monograph  on 
Jean  Nicolet's  notable  expedition. 

Wisconsin's  part  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  maybe  studied  in  :  "  Annual 
Report  of  the  Adjutant-General  [Aug.  Gaylord]  for  1865,"  now  a  very  rare 
book;  "The  Military  History  of  Wisconsin,"  illustrated  with  steel  engrav- 
ings, by  Edmund  B.  Quiner  (Clarke  and  Co.,  Chicago,  1866,  pp.  1022)  ; 
"  Wisconsin  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,"  with  steel  engravings,  by  Wm. 
De  Loss  Love  (Church  &  Goodman,  Chicago,  1866,  pp.  1144)  ;  also  in  sev- 
eral fugitive  essays,  pamphlets  and  booklets,  although  Wisconsin  has  not 
yet  developed  many  writers  of  war  reminiscence.  Edwin  E.  Bryant's 
"Badgers  in  Battle"  (Wisconsin  Soldiers  and  Sailors  Reunion  Roster, 
Milwaukee,  1880)  is  a  helpful  skcicli. 


BOOKS  RELAIING    TO    IV/SCONSliV.  385 


For  a  general  study  of  the  liistoiic  Northwest  Territory,  tlie  most  avail- 
able work  is  that  written  by  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  "The  Old  Northwest,  with  a 
view  of  the  thirteen  colonies  as  constituted  by  the  royal  charters"  (New 
York,  188S).  Theodore  Roosevelt's  "  Winning  of  the  West  "  (New  York, 
1S89),  neglects  Wisconsin,  but  maybe  cordially  recommended  for  its  geneial 
view  of  the  West  in  the  Revolution.  Samuel  Adams  Drake's  "  The  Mak- 
ing of  the  Great  West,"  is  built  on  good  lines  and  is  useful.  Frederick  J. 
Turner's  "  Outline  Studies  in  the  History  of  the  Northwest  "  (Chicago,  188S) 
is  a  bibliography  that  will  be  found  of  value  to  special  students.  Various 
articles  in  Winsor's  "  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  espe- 
cially those  by  William  F.  Poole  and  Edward  D.  Neill,  should  be  examined. 

The  notable  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  by  Joliet  and  Marquette  may  be 
best  studied  in  detail,  in  "  Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  with  the  Original  Narratives  of  Marquette,  Allouez,  Membre,  Henne- 
pin, etc.,'"  by  John  G.  Shea  (New  York,  1852-53).  Shea's  "  History  of  the 
Catholic  Missions  among  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  from  1529 
to  1824  "  (New  York,  1855)  may  be  profitably  studied,  in  connection  with 
Parkman's  "  Jesuits  in  North  America."  A  comprehensive  account  of  the 
French  occupation  will  be  found  in  the  introductory  chapters  to  Parkman's 
"  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac ; "  this  rapid  review  will  be  useful  to  those  not 
acquainted  with  the  earlier  volumes  of  Parkman.  A  thorough  reading  of 
Parkman's  nine  volumes  is,  however,  to  be  earnestly  urged  upon  students 
who  wish  to  have  a  good  foundation  in  Wisconsin  history.  Neill's  "  History 
of  Minnesota,"  and  his  "  Minnesota  Explorers  and  Pioneers,"  are  invaluable 
in  studying  French  exploration,  particularly  along  the  Upper  Mississippi 
and  Lake  Superior.  Neill's  many  magazine  articles  on  the  early  French  are 
worth  hunting  for,  in  "  Poole's  Index."  The  "  Jesuit  Relations  "  and  '*  Rad- 
isson's  Voyages "  (Prince  Society  publications)  are  original  documents  of 
prime  importance. 


INDEX. 


Agriculture,  338. 

Algonkins  driven  to  Wisconsin,  37. 

Allouez,  Claude,  missionary  to  Wisconsin, 
47  ;  establishes  a  mission  at  Depere,  49. 

American  P'ur  Company  organized,  133  ;  its 
headquarters  at  Mackinaw  Island,  152  ; 
stronghold  in  Wisconsin,  155. 

Andre,  Louis,  Jesuit  missionary,  52. 

Antietam,  Wisconsin  regiments  at,  297. 

Appleton,  353. 

Arndt-Vineyard  quarrel,  the,  213. 

Ashland,  early  explorers  at,  41  ;  present  con- 
dition of,  354. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  organizes  the  American 
Fur  Company,  133  ;  his  expedition  to  Wis- 
consin, 133  ;  establishes  headquarters  at 
Mackinaw  Island,  152;  his  monopoly  of 
the  fur  trade,  157. 

Atkinson,  General  Henry,  in  Winnebago 
war,  174;  in  Rlack  Hawk  War,  183. 

Bad  Ax,  Battle  of,  173  ;  in  Black  Hawk  War, 
190. 

Baiicy,  Lt.  Col.,  Joseph,  317. 

Barstow,  William  A.,  Secretary  of  State, 
236;  "Barstow  and  the  Balance,"  237; 
elected  governor,  239;  contest  with  I'ash- 
ford,  241  ;  resigns  his  office,  242. 

Barth,  Laurent,  trapper  and  trader,  125. 

Bashford,  Coles,  claims  election  as  governor, 
240;  suit  against  Barstow,  241  ;  inaugu- 
rated as  governor,  245. 

Belmont,  seat  of  first  territorial  legislature, 
198. 

Beloit,  353. 

Black  Hawk  War,  180-191  ;  results  of,  191. 

"  Bostonniens,"  the,  name  given  to  Ameri- 
can traders,  i  lo. 

Burlington,  second  legislative  session  held  at, 
202. 

Burns,  John,  at  Gettysburg,  311. 

Cadotte,  Michel,  at  La  Pointe,  129. 

Cardinell,  Madame,  first  white  woman  settler, 
105. 

Carver,  Captain  Jonathan,  in  Wisconsin, 
107;  obtains  a  valuable  grant,  108. 


Champlain  in  Canada,  20 ;  death  of,  36. 
Charlevoix,  Father,  in  Wisconsin,  86. 
Chippewa  Indians  in  Wisconsin,  159. 
Cmireurs  de  bois,  early  in   the  Northwest, 

20;  in  Wisconsin,  54;  their  guerrilla  war- 
fare, 114. 
Creole  boatmen  of  the  Northwest,  132. 
Dablon,  Father,  in  Wisconsin,  50. 
Depere,  site  of  early  Jesuit  mission,  49;  so- 

leil  found  at,  77. 
Dodge,  Henry,  first  Territorial  governor,  tg7; 

removed,  213. 
Doty,  James  Duane,  names  territory  "  Wis- 

konsin,"  197 :    selects  Madison  as  capital, 

200;  appointed  territorial  governor,  213. 
Drake,  George,  first  Wisconsin  man  killed  in 

the  Civil  War,  291. 
Du  Lhut  in  Wisconsin,  64,  69 ;  his  meeting 

with  Hennepin,  70. 
Eau  Claire,  351. 
Education  in  Wisconsin,  358. 
Farmers  Institutes,  360. 
Fifth  Wisconsin  Regiment  at  Williamsburg, 

294  ;  at  Fredericksburg,  302. 
First  Wisconsin    Regiment,   recruited,  275; 

mustered  into  service,  276  ;  engagement  at 

Falling    Waters,   278 ;     reorganized    as  a 

three-years     regiment,    278;     at     Chaplin 

Hills,  279. 
Fisheries,  338. 

Foreign  born  inhabitants,  344-350. 
Fond  du  Lac,  351. 
Forest  fires,  334. 
Fort  Antoine  erected,  76. 
F'ort  Crawford  erected,  153  ;  abandoned,  167. 
Fort  Edward  ."Vugustus,  see  Green  Bay. 
Fort  Howard  established,  154. 
Fort  Mackinaw,  massacre  at,  96;  reoccupied, 

98. 
Fort  St.  Francis,  see  Green  Bay. 
Fort  Shelby,  capture  of,  145. 
Fourteenth  Wisconsin  Regiment  at  Shiloh, 

294;  at  Corinth,  29S;  at  Vicksburg,  305. 
Fox  river;  discovered,  23  ;    Indian  tradition 

of,  33. 


387 


388 


INDEX. 


Fox  and  Wisconsin  River  Improvement,  the, 

254. 
"  French  train,"  The,  204. 
"  Fugitive  slave  "  troubles  in  Wisconsin,  247. 
Fur  traders  on  Lake    Huron,  20 ;    on   Lake 

Superior,  20. 
Gautier,  Charles,  partisan  captain,  108  ;    re- 
cruiting expedition  of,  no;   his  allies,  in. 
Gorrell,  Lieutenant   James,  in  command   at 

Green  Bay,  91  ;  evacuates  Green  Bay,  97. 
Griffin,  The ;    vessel   of   La  Salle,  at  Green 

Bay,  65. 
Grignon,  Augustin,  Indian  trader,  157. 
Green  Bay  ;  visited  by  Nicolet,  27  ;  supposed 
by  him  to  be  the  "  China  Sea,"  29;  visited 
by  missionaries,  49  ;  made  French  military 
post  of  Fort  St.   Francis,  85;  taken  pos- 
session  of  by   England,  90 ;    named   Fort 
Edward  Augustus,  91  ;    trading  and  agri- 
culture at,  98;   Judge  Reaume's  court  at, 
150;  American  occupation  of,  153. 
Harvey,  Governor,  2S6. 
Hennepin,    Louis,   in    Wisconsin,    68 ;     his 

meeting  with  Du  Lhut,  70. 
Historical  society.  The  State,  362. 
Hubbell,  Judge  Levi,  impeachment  of,  235. 
Huron,  Lake,  visited  by  fur  traders,  20. 
Indians;  early  tribes,  16,  18  ;  visited  by  Nic- 
olet, 24  ;  early  troubles  with,  37;  visited  by 
Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  39 ;    visited  by 
missionaries,  40,  47 ;  missions  established 
among,  49,  50;  tribal  wars,  51;  idols  of, 
51;  and  the  missionaries,  53;   treaty  mak- 
ing with  France,  55  ;  bad  faith  toward  the 
French,  81;  troubles  with,  83,85;  under 
English  patronage,  92  ;   Pontiac's  war,  95  ; 
in   1780,  112;  treaty  with   Sinclair,  117;  at 
date  of  American  occupation,  122  ;   Ameri- 
can   agreement   with,    130;     character   of 
trade  with,  155,  aggressions  against  miners 
and  settlers,  163  ;  New  York  Indians  re- 
moved to  Wisconsin,  177;  concessions  of, 
179;    during  the  Civil  War,  289  ;    present 
number  and  condition,  354. 
"  Iron    Brigade,"   The,   297,  301,  307,   308, 

3'S. 
Iron  mines,  335. 
Jancsville,  353. 

Joliet,  Louis,  in  Wisconsin,  56;  joins  Mar- 
quette, 57;  discovers  the  Mississippi,  59. 
Juneau,  Solomon,  t lie  pimicLr  of  Milwaukee, 

125. 
Kewaunee,  an  early  "  boom"  town,  199. 
La  Bayo,  French  military  station,  87. 
Labor  troubles,  337. 
La  CroBsc,  351. 


Langlade,  Charles  de,  partisan  captain,  85; 
at  La  Baye,  87;    at   Green    Bay,  100;    in 
troubles  of  1780,  113;  his  fur  trading,  117. 
La  Pointe,  trading  post  at,  129. 
La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier  de,  in  Wisconsin, 
64 ;    voyage    in    the    Griffin,   65  ;    stormy 
voyage  of,  66. 
Le  Sueur,  Wisconsin  voyageur,  71  ;  a  notable 

character,  78 ;  his  explorations,  79. 
Lead  mines  opened,  161. 
Lewis,  James  T.,  governor,  289. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  captain   in  Black  Hawk 

War,  185  ;  his  call  to  arms,  274. 
Linctot,  Godefroy,  partisan  captain,  no. 
Lumbering  interests  of  Wisconsin,  332. 
Madison  selected  as  the  capital,  200;  capitol 
erected  at,  203 ;  life  at,  204 ;  present  con- 
dition of,  352. 
Madison  Guard,  The,  tenders  its  services  to 

the  governor,  274. 
Man,  Prehistoric,  in  Wisconsin,  13. 
Manufacturing  interests,  336. 
Marin,  French  partisan  captain,  S3. 
Marquette,    Father,  in   Wisconsin,    57;    dis- 
covers  the   Mississippi,  59;    publishes  ac- 
count of  expedition,  60;  at  Green  Bay,  62. 
McDermott,     Daniel,    color     sergeant;      his 

bravery,  308. 
Menard,  Rene,  missionary  to  Wisconsin  In- 
dians, 40,  46;  death  of,  46. 
Milwaukee,  First  settler  in,  124;  madeatrad- 
ing  post  by  Jacques  Vieau,  124 ;  Solomon 
Juneau  at,    125;    its    Indian    trade,    157; 
action  of  bankers,  282  ;  population  of,  350; 
its  enterprise,  351. 
Milwaukee  River,  La  Salle  in,  67. 
Mirandeau,    Jean     Baptiste,    fust    settler   in 

Milwaukee,  124. 
Mitchell,  Andrew,  and  his  liank,  219. 
"  Monks  of  Monk  Hall,"  238. 
Mormonism  in  Wisconsin,  224 
Mounds   and  mound-builders  in  Wisconsin, 

Nicolet,  Jean,  first  white  man  in  Wisconsin, 
19;  his  expedition,  23;  mission  to  the 
Winnebagoes,  30;  his  long  journey,  35. 

Northwest  Company,  The,  formed,  131. 

Northwest  Territory,  Division  of,  195. 

Nuttall,  Thomas,  heads  a  scientific  explora- 
tion in  Wisconsin,  134. 

"Old  Abe,"  the  Wisconsin  war  eagle,  316. 

Oshkosh,  a  famous  camping  ground  foi 
Toy  (I  Incurs,  32,  351. 

I'epin,  Lake,  IVrrot  at,  76. 

Perrot,  Nicholas,  tradir,  ni  Wisconsin,  55; 
appointi-d    "  c(Mnni.nul,nit    of    the    West," 


INDEX. 


389 


71;  at  Green  Hay,  72;  his  stockade  fort, 
76 ;  erects  Fort  Antoiiic,  76. 

Pontine,  his  war,  96. 

Population,  342. 

Portage  lines  and  carriers,  125-129. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  fur  trading  station,  105; 
captured  by  the  British,  136;  engagement 
at,  145  ;  occupied  by  Americans,  153  ;  as  a 
trading  station,  15S;  in  the  Winnebago 
war,  168. 

Radisson  and  Groseilliers  in  Wisconsin,  37- 

45- 
Racine,  351. 
Railroads   in    Wisconsin,  262 ;    Land  grants 

to,  263,  33Q. 
Randall,  Alexander  W.,  war  governor,  270: 

issues  his  proclamation,  274;  calls  special 

session  of  Legislature,  281 ;  his  record,  2S5. 
Reaume,  Judge  Charles,  at  Green  Bay,  150. 
Red  Bird,  the  Winnebago,   168,   175;    death 

of,  176. 
Religious  denominations  and  colleges,  361. 
Robertson,  Samuel,  his  voyage,  115. 
Rogers,  INLijor   Robert,  takes   possession  of 

Wisconsin,  90. 
St.  Cosme,  Father,  at  Green  Bay,  So. 
Saint  Lusson,  The  Sieur,  in  Wisconsin,  55; 

makes  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  55. 
Sac  and  Fox  cession  to  United  States,  131. 
Salomon,  Governor,  287. 
Sheboygan,  353. 
Sinclair,  Captain  Patrick,  makes  treaty  with 

the  Indians,  117. 
State  Board  of  charities  and  reform,  364. 
State  university.  The,  359. 
Stillman's  Creek,  Battle  of,  185. 
Strang,  James  Jesse,  "  King  Strang,"  224  ; 

his  death,  229. 
Superior,  Lake,  visited  by  fur-traders,  20. 
'Tallmadge,  Nathaniel  P.,  territorial  governor, 

230. 
Tecumseh's  war,  134. 
Twentieth   Wisconsin    Regiment    at    Prairie 

Grove,  300. 
Twiggs,  General    David    E.;    his   record   in 

Wisconsin,  273. 
Veterans,  Home  at  Waupaca,  the,  366. 
Vieau,  Jacques,  establishes  trading  post  at 

Milwaukee,  124. 
Whistler,  Major  William,  in  the  Winnebago 

War,  174. 
Williams,  Eleazer,  spy,  missionary  and  Indian 

agent,  178;  claims  to  be  Louis  the  Seven- 
teenth of  France,  179;  his  death,  i.So. 
Winnebago  Indians,  visited  by  Nicolet,  30; 

war  with,  167. 


Winnebago,  Lake,  visited  by  traders,  20; 
Indian  villages  on,  31  ;  Nicolet's  voyage 
on,  32. 

Wisconsin  Heights,  Battle  of,  188. 

"  Wisconsin  Phalanx,"  The,  a  Fourierite 
organization,  222. 

Wisconsin,  a  Laurentian  island,  11  ;  geologic 
development  of,  12 ;  prehistoric  man  in, 
13;  mounds  of,  14;  Indian  tribes  of,  16, 
iS;  first  white  visitor  to,  19;  early  explor- 
ers in,  30-35,  38-45  ;  Jesuit  missionaries 
and  French  explorers  in,  40-88  ;  six  port- 
age routes  in,  82  ;  fall  of  French  power  in, 
88 ;  British  possession  of,  89 ;  formally 
handed  over  to  England,  96 ;  early  agri- 
culture in,  98 ;  British  and  American  rival- 
ries in,  107-118;  claimed  by  United  States, 
121;  becomes  American  territory,  123; 
Sac  and  Fox  cession  of  lands,  131  ;  era  of 
real  American  domination  begins,  131  ;  va- 
cillating American  policy  in,  135  ;  in  the 
War  of  1812,  135-147;  French  and  Ameri- 
can jealousies  in,  152;  Indian  trade  in, 
■55>  '59!  trading  villages  in,  160;  mining 
operations,  i6i  ;  growing  colonization  of 
the  State,  163;  Indian  troubles,  167;  the 
Winnebago  War,  170;  close  of  Winnebago 
War,  177;  Indian  removals  and  reserva- 
tions, 177;  Black  Hawk  War,  180-191  ; 
increased  interest  in  after  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  191  ;  in  division  of  Northwest  Ter- 
ritor)',  195;  Wisconsin  Territory  organized, 
196;  Judge  Doty  names  it,  197;  first  ter- 
ritorial governor  appointed,  197  ;  first  legis- 
lative session,  19S  ;  struggle  over  location 
of  capital,  198;  Madison  selected,  200; 
life  in  the  Territory,  205-213;  boundary 
discussions,  215;  emigrations  to,  221; 
Fourierism  in,  222;  Mormonism  in,  224; 
constitutional  conventions,  231;  Wiscon- 
sin admitted  as  a  State,  231 ;  political  troub- 
les, 240-246 ;  Fugitive  Slave  Act  in,  247 ; 
Internal  improvements  in,  254;  railway 
companies  in,  262;  Land  grants,  263  ;  po- 
litical partisanship,  26S  ;  in  the  Civil  War, 
270-329;  part  played  by  the  Wisconsin 
regiments  in  the  Civil  War,  291-329  ;  cost 
of  the  war  to  the  State,  330 ;  grow-th  in 
resources  and  industry,  331  ;  Indians  in 
the  State,  354  ;  educational  interests,  358 ; 
tlie  State  University,  359;  religious  soci- 
eties and  schools,  361  ;  the  State  Histor- 
ical Society,  362  ;  charitable  and  reforma- 
tory institution,  363  ;  Wisconsin's  destiny, 
367- 


T  H  K     S  T  O  R  Y     ()  V     T  H  E     S  T  A  T  K  S  . 

KDHEI)    BV    KLURIDOE    S.    BROOKS. 

The  Story  of  Wisconsin  is  the  fifth  issue  in  the 
proposed  series  of  graphic  narrations  descriptive 
of  the  rise  and  development  of  the  American 
Union,  The  State  of  Wisconsin  has  a  stirring 
and  pecuHar  history.  The  child  of  the  coiircur  de 
bois  and  of  the  Jesuit  missionary  its  beginnings 
were  as  dramatic  and  picturesque  as  its  present  is 
progressive  and  practical.  The  story  of  the  State 
has  never  yet  been  fully  or  fitly  told,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  its  author  as  the  secretary  of  the  State  His- 
torical Society  peculiarly  fits  him  to  produce  a 
volume  every  way  suited  to  the  needs  and  the 
expectations  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin. 

In  the  production  of  so  comprehensive  a  series 
as  is  this  Story  of  the  States,  it  is  as  wise  as  it  is 
necessary  to  make  haste  slowly.  The  American 
Commonwealths  are  adding  important  paragraphs 
to  their  story  every  day,  and  each  story  needs  to 
be  fully  as  well  as  concisely  told. 

Great  care  is  being  exercised  in  the  selection  of 
writers  for  the  entire  series  and  the  expressions  of' 
popular  and  critical  approval  of  the  plan  adopted 
are  gratefully  acknowledged  by  the  publishers. 

This  fifth  volume  will  be  speedily  followed  by 
two  others  already  in  press: 


THE    STORY  OF  THE    STATES. 

The  Story  of  Kentucky  by  Emma  M.  Connelly. 

The  Story  of  Massachusetts  by  Edward  Everett 
Hale. 

The  Story  of  Colorado  by  Charles  M.  Skinner 
and  the  Story  of  New  Mexico  by  Horatio  O.  Ladd 
will  also  be  among  the  earl}^  issues, 

Amoncj  the  other  volumes  secured  for  the  series, 
several  of  which  are  already  well  toward  completion, 
are : 


The  Story  of  California  .          .          .          . 

By 

'riie  Story  of  Virginia       .          .          .          . 

By 

The  Story  of  Connecticut 

By 

The  Story  of  Missouri     . 

By 

The  Story  of  Texas 

By 

'rhe  Story  of  Maryland    . 

By 

The  Story  of  Delaware    . 

By 

The  Story  of  the  Indian  Territory  . 

By 

The  Story  of  Michigan    . 

Bv 

The  Story  of  the  District  of  Columbia 

By 

The  Story  of  Oregon 

-         By 

The  Story  of  Maine 

By 

The  Story  of  Pennsylvania 

By 

The  Story  of  Kansas 

By 

The  Story  of  Mississippi 

By 

The  Story  of  Florida 

Bv 

The  Story  of  Alabama     . 

-      By 

'I'he  Story  of  Tennessee  . 

•         By 

Tlic  Story  of  Arkansas    . 

Bv 

The  Story  of  New  Jersey 

■         By 

Noah  Brooks 
Marion  Harland 
Sidney  Luska 
Jessie  Benton  Fremont 
E.  S.  Nadal 
John  R.  Coryell 
Olive  Thorne  Miller 
George  E.  Foster 
Charles  Moore 
Edmund  Alton 
Margaret  E.  Sangstek 
Almon  Gunnison 
Olive  Rislev  Sewari> 
Willis  J.  Abtsott 
I^AURA  F.   Hinsdale 
S.  G.  W.  Ijenjamin 
Annie  Sawyer  Downs 
Laura  C.  Holi.ow'ay 
Octave  Thankt 
Wm.  Elliot  (]riefis 


The  stories  will  be  issued  at  the  uniform  net 
subscrii)li()ii  price  of  #1.50  per  volume.  yXnnounc- 
ments  of  additions  to  the  series  will  be  made  in 
succeedinci^  volumes.  Incpiiries  respecting  the 
series  may  be  addressed  to  the  ]jublishers, 

1).    I.OTIIROP   COMPANY,    BOSTON. 


THE    STORY   OF  THE    STATES. 

(^Already  Published.) 

The  Story  of  New  York,  by  Elbridge  S.  Brooks. 
The  Story  of  Ohio,  by  Alexander   Black. 
The  Story  of  Louisiana,  by  Maurice  Thompson. 
The  Story  of  Vermont,  by  John  L.  Heaton. 

Svo,  each  volume  fully  illustrated,  price  $1.50. 

The  initial  volumes  of  this  new  and  notable  contribution  to 
American  history  have  been  so  favorably  received  that  little 
doubt  can  remain  as  to  the  need  of  the  series  they  inaugurate 
and  the  permanent  popularity  of  the  style  adopted  for  their 
telling. 

"Of  the  series  instructively,"  says  the  Boston  Globe.,  "one 
can  hardly  say  too  much  in  praise.  In  a  new  field  it  contrib- 
utes essentially  and  influentially  to  the  right  estimation  of 
national  character  and  of  the  mission  of  the  future." 

I  —  NEW  YORK.  Every  American  should  read  this  book. 
It  is  not  dull  history.  It  is  story  based  on  historic  facts. 
"With  all  the  fascinations  of  a  story,"  says  the  Journal  of 
Education,  "it  still  remains  loyal  to  historic  facts  and  the 
patriotic  spirit." 

"A  valuable  contribution  to  picturesque  liistory."  —  Boston  Advertiser. 

"  Vivid,  picturesque  and  entertaining."  — Unnneapolis  Tribune. 

"  To  one  familiar  with  the  history  of  New  York  State  this  book  will  be  exceedinctly  refresh- 
ing and  interesting.  Mr.  Brooks  is  an  entertaining  writer  and  his  Story  of  New  York  will  be 
read  with  avidity.  He  is  no  novice  in  historic  writing.  This  book  will  add  to  his  reputation 
and  will  find  its  way  into  thousands  of  private  libraries."  —  Utica  Press. 

II — OHIO.  This  volume  has  been  received  with  the  most 
enthusiastic  approval.  No  existing  work  occupies  precisely  the 
same  field.  It  is  at  once  picture,  text-book  and  story.  Mr. 
Black's  skill  in  condensing  into  so  brief  a  compass  so  much 
valuable  matter,  his  deft  handling  of  all  the  varying  phases  of 
Ohio's  story  and  his  picturesque  presentation  of  what  in  other 
hands  might  be  but  the  dry  details  of  history  have  secured 
alike  popular  recognition  and  popular  approval. 

"  To  incorporate  within  some  three  hundred  pages,  even  an  intelligible  sketch  of  the  history 
of  Ohio  is  something  of  a  literary  feat,  and  to  make  such  a  sketch  interesting  is  still  more 
diflficult.  Mr.  Black,  however,  has  succeeded  in  doing  this.  .  .  .  His  book  is  welcome 
and  valuable  and  is  well  adapted  for  popular  use  and  reference."  —  Ne^u  York  Tribune. 


THE   STORY  OF  THE   STATES. 


"One  of  the  warm,  lively,  picturesque  narratives,  lighted  up  with  bits  of  personal,  human 
interest  and  clear  glimpses  of  a  people's  every-day  life  which  will  closely  interest  the  general 
reader."  —  Chicago  Times. 

Ill  — LOUISIANA.  Mr.  Thompson's  brilliant  and  enter- 
taining outline  of  the  history  of  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
and  romantic  States  in  all  the  sisterhood  of  American  Common- 
wealths is  full  of  grace  and  vigor,  yoked  to  characteristic 
description  and  a  pleasing  presentation  of  facts.  It  is,  says 
the  Critic,  "  A  wonderfully  picturesque  account  of  a  land 
abounding  in  interest  of  every  sort :  landscapes,  hereditary 
singularities,  mixed  nationality,  legends  and  thrilling  episodes." 

"The  manner  in  which  this  story  is  told  by  Mr.  Thompson  leaves  little  to  be  desired.  .  .  . 
He  has  made  an  absorbing  and  stirring,  but  at  the  same  time  most  thoroughly  practical  and 
instructive  book." — Boston  Traveller. 

"  There  is  no  lack  of  fascinating  and  romantic  material  in  the  history  of  Louisiana  without 
going  beyond  the  barest  facts,  as  indeed  Mr.  Thompson  shows."  —  T/ie  Nation. 

"An  absorbing  romance  and  at  the  same  time  a  practical  and  instructive  history." — Jour- 
nal of  Education. 

"  Mr.  Thompson's  prose  is  full  of  the  tire  and  spirit  of  poetry,  and  the  story  could  scarcely 
be  told  better  or  more  interestingly.  The  writing  is  free  from  all  prejudices  and  can  be  read 
with  a  like  interest  by  the  people  of  Illinois  and  those  of  Louisiana."  —  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

"  The  story  is  picturesque  beyond  a)l  possibility  of  greater  and  more  vivid  heightening.  .  . 
The  book  is  one  of  great  popular  interest  and  it  is  rarely  that  a  work  of  historical  accuracy  is 
presented  in  a  garb  so  graceful  and  alluring."  —  Ne^vark  Daily  Advertiser. 

IV — VERMONT.  Mr.  Heaton  has  not  only 'made  a  clear, 
entertaining  and  practical  story  of  the  Green  Mountain  State, 
but  has  produced  a  book  that  stands,  at  present,  without  a  com- 
petitor, no  history  of  Vermont  having  been  published  for  over 
forty  years.  Every  Vermont  family  and  every  family  able  to 
trace  its  origin  to  the  Mountain  Commonwealth  should  find 
pride  and  pleasure  in  this  story. 

'  A  substantial  contribution  to  our  historical  literature.  Mr.  Heaton  has  told  his  story  with 
spirit  and  vigor  and  technical  historical  accuracy.  The  book  has  the  charm  of  a  well-written 
romance  and  the  value  of  a  solid  work  of  history." —  Chicago  Tribune. 

"A  volume  that  should  attract  the  attention  of  all  lovers  of  every  phase  of  our  nation '.s 
story  .ind  every  admirer  of  sturdy,  persistent,  devoted  and  patriotic  endeavor." — Citiciiniati 
Enquirer. 

"  Not  a  page  is  dull,  tedious  or  other  llian  lucid  and  lively,  .so  charming  is  the  style  and  so 
fluid  is  the  narrative,  condensed  without  Ijeing  superficial."  —  Christian  /register. 

"Mr.  Heaton's  style  is  manly,  unaffected,  simple  and  direct,  full  of  practical  purpose 
lighted  with  the  skill  of  a  humorist."  —  Ao«/'.t7'///i-  Courier-Journal. 

"  It  is  as  readable  as  a  novel  —  much  more  so  than  the  average  analytical  novel  of  the  [leriod 
—  and  should  be  widely  read."  —  St.  Johnshmy  Repuhlican. 


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